


In Good Health and Good Time

by JooseBoxx



Category: Glee
Genre: Community: gleebigbang, F/M, Family Situations, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-07
Updated: 2013-01-07
Packaged: 2017-11-24 01:36:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 32,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/628845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JooseBoxx/pseuds/JooseBoxx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A car crash puts Puck in the hospital, killing his mother and grandmother. Mr. Puckerman is called while Puck lies in the hospital. A reunion that results in shocking revelations, surprising revelations and a completely new family.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Good Health and Good Time

He knows the moment he wakes up; something is wrong.

It isn't just the beeping, isn't the pain in his ribcage or the cast wrapped around his wrist. He has little flashes of memory; Ma and Nana arguing like they always did, the screech of tires, flash of red, the window smashing, pain and agony and then blackness. There's really vague moments of talking, a few instances where he'd swear he hears his sister. But he just can't figure it out.

The smell tells him he's in the hospital before the beeping and machines do. He's got an IV in his hand and something hooked up to his chest, probably one of those funky heart monitors. There's a bunch of flowers on the table beside his bed which he knows are from Quinn; they're her favourite flowers. A few cards are propped up around the vase and he can see one that has a massive love heart drawn on it which must be from Britt, and there's one beside it that he recognises as his sister's art work – she's drawn herself and him hugging and it's kinda cute. It's nice, the cards and Quinn's flowers. In that whole weird kind of way that he doesn't exactly get because he's not the sort of guy that people send cards to.

He's even more confused when he sees who's in the chair next to his bed.

It's one of those things you never forget - what your dad looks like. Puck's never forgotten because year by year he grew to look more and more like his dad. His ma hated it and he wasn't overly thrilled himself; he did what he could to take away from it, the mohawk, the plugs he got after juvie, the loose clothes. He wanted the reminder about his old man about as much as his ma wanted it.

But there he is, curled into this tiny chair that Puck knows will be hell on the old man's back. It's freaky just how much he hasn't changed in nine years. Puck has no idea how long he spends staring at the man, half expecting him to disappear all over again, before the man starts to wake.

It takes him a minute to notice that Puck is awake and then he's out of the seat faster than believable and at Puck's side.

"Noah, son, how're you feeling? You hurtin' kiddo? Lemme get a nurse." All Puck really wants is an explanation; for what happened, why he's in hospital, where Ma and Nana are, what the hell _he_ was doing there, why the fuck he left, where his sister is? Anything would be nice really.

Before Puck can actually say anything though, his dad is out getting a nurse and doctors and he can't actually stop to ask what's going on between all the questions he has to answer. They ask about how his chest feels, about his arm, if he has any gaps in his memory other than right before and immediately after the incident, if he's feeling any nausea or dizziness, if his eye-sight is focused or not. It's all one thing after the other and Puck feels drained just dealing with them. He has three broken ribs, apparently they punctured his lung and he almost died. He'll get a scar on his side which is kind of cool and kind of not. His left wrist and his forearm fractured, so they plastered his whole lower left arm but left him his fingers, even though he can't move them right now. Beyond that and a bump on the head from the initial roll of the car, he's fine.

With the nurses and doctors leaving him to 'rest', Puck can finally address the big purple elephant in the room.

"What're you doing here?" He can't figure it out, because his dad didn't show up the first time he ended up in hospital from a football injury, he wasn't around when Sarah had tonsillitis and got them out, he didn't show up when Nana G broke her hip, didn't show up when Puck broke his eye-socket —and that injury was interesting to explain. All those other times, he'd never been there. So why now?

"Noah, during the crash, there— I'm sorry, kiddo. Your mama, she's... her and Nana are gone." It's scary how he kind of already knew that. People said that your life flashes before your eyes in situations like that, but Puck has crystal clear recall on just what happened. Ma and Nana were arguing, Nana seemed to do it a lot with his ma, he figured it was because she was the only one of her kids still around or whatever. But it's like, they were arguing one second and then the next Ma lost control, swerved the car sideways, someone rammed into their side and the car tumbled over. Puck's pretty sure that's when he hit his head, Nana's skull cracked on the dashboard and glass from the windscreen went everywhere. Considering how quiet things had been, beyond the ringing in his ears and the screeching around them and the screaming from somewhere outside of the car, inside the car was completely silent. He sort of knew then that he was the only one conscious or alive. He just couldn't see around the front seats to make sure.

Then things went black and faded into being moved but black straight after, then he remembers lights and moving and someone prattling off all these words and he had no clue what was being said. He's sure that was the last thing he remembered.

"But why are _you_ here?" It still doesn't answer why his father showed up. Does it?

"I'm your next of kin, son. They called when you were brought in. I made it just in time to be told you'd flat-lined in surgery." Flat-lined? That was... shit, he'd _died_? "Scared the crap outta me."

"Where's Sarah?"

"She's okay, your friend Rachel's down in the cafeteria with her just now, she'll be back soon, I promise." Rachel has Sarah, so that's okay. Sarah likes Rachel, weirdly. Rachel is the _coolest_ girl at Temple; Rachel is the only girl at Temple who talked to Sarah which automatically made her 'cool'. "You should just rest up; you've been through a pretty serious crash, and a major operation."

"I still don't get it." His dad just sits there, waiting for it, "Why are you here? Why now? Why bother after all this time to show up?" Puck doesn't know if it's important or just something he's needed to know since he was seven and his ma told him that Dad wouldn't be there next week when he turned eight, so he'd just need to grow up. "Why did you leave in the first place?"

"Your mother never told Sarah who I was, did she?" Puck shakes his head, because Sarah had been born five months after his dad walked out. Sarah had never known who the man was beyond what Nana and Ma said when they were bitching. She'd asked Puck once, but he didn't really have anything to say at that point. "I figured she wouldn't. After— God, it's hard to believe it's been so long. I never regretted telling her, but I've always regretted what happened." Puck's not following. "Noah, when your mother told me she was pregnant again, I couldn't really feel the joy I wanted to, not like when we had you. Because at that point I knew what I had to do." He had to leave? He'd been _planning_ on leaving? "When your mother and I met, we were just out of high school, we had dreams and plans and we were gonna be something. But it never kicked off, and then Ruth got pregnant and we got married and settled down and, for a while it worked. I mean, you remember then, don't you? We used to play baseball in the yard and we'd go to the park on the weekends? Mama'd bring you to see me at work sometimes. We were good, back then. But I started to figure some things out for myself.

"Now I loved your mother, don't ever think I didn't, just like I love you, and Sarah. You're my kids." Puck wants to get mad, because he doesn't have any right to call them that, not after he left them for so long, he never even saw Sarah when she was born, wasn't around long enough to name her. _Noah_ had named her. "But I'd been lying to myself for too long, and it was just getting too hard. When I told your mother, she was four months along with Sarah, I knew that it wasn't the best time, but I hoped she'd understand. We'd been facing troubles, we'd been growing apart. I figured, when I told her I was gay, she'd understand why we weren't working." Puck can do little more than stare. Really, he's just a little _too_ shocked.

"You walked out on us 'cause you like dick?"

"No, I..." the old man sighs, running a hand over his close cropped hair, "I never _wanted_ to leave, kiddo. I never wanted that for us. I wanted us to work through it, for us to figure it out but still raise you and your sister together. We were still a family; we just weren't going to be together as one. But your mother, well, she told her mother, and Nana Goldman, well, you know Nana."

Nana Goldman was not a forgiving woman. She wasn't racist, or homophobic, or sexist, or any of that other stuff. But if you lied to her, by God you better run and hope she never found you. Puck could understand Nana G freaking out, Puck could understand Nana G. laying down the law and scary as it was he could picture her running his father out of town with a pitchfork in her hand. What he couldn't understand, was his father accepting it. Or his mother telling them what she told them. He could understand why she hated how much he looked like his dad though.

"So you just left?"

"I didn't want to, but they didn't really leave me with much choice. There was no divorce, I sent child support, but your mother refused to let me see you both, or talk to either of you. She just told you what she wanted and I had to live with it."

"She told us you left to be a rock star; something about groupies and STDs and plucking your guitar. Thinking about it, it makes more sense in a passive aggressive kind of way." His ma and him share a sense of humour, or they did at least. He honestly has no idea what this means for him and Sarah, because their Ma is gone. Like, _gone_ gone. And Nana too. Nana G wasn't exactly as close to them as Nana Connie —Nana Connie was his dad's ma, and although she was a fair distance away, she still tried to keep in touch as much as possible. Nana G was around more, but she wasn't exactly 'close' or anything, she just yelled a lot and made them clean up their rooms.

"Noah—," he doesn't get to ask, not as Rachel stands in the doorway to his room, his little sister's hand in hers and Sarah has clearly been crying, and her voice has that pathetic, scared kid quality when she says his name.

"C'mere, squirt." She smiles at him, Rachel leading her to his left side and picking her up to kneel on the edge of his bed. Puck just raises his plaster-casted arm to loop her waist, pulling her in for a careful hug. "I love my card." Rachel stays behind them, stroking a hand down Sarah's hair, smiling slightly.

"I made it so you'd feel better. Cause Mama and Nana aren't here anymore; the lady said that they had to go away. I was scared you'd go away too and I'd be all alone, but Rach said you'd never leave me."

"Never ever." Not if he had anything to say about it. Sure, she was a pain in his ass sometimes; all her clubs, her annoying friends, her stupid make up, her shows on cable, her toys all over the floor, her weekly change in diet. It was frustrating. But she was his little sister, the little bundle that laid in his lap when he was eight and just stared up at him, the brat that crept into his room to sleep on the floor when she had a nightmare and scare the shit out of him in the morning when he stood on her, the dork who'd balance plastic or rubber spiders in the shower just to piss him off. But she was still this bright eyed little thing perched on his hospital bed half clinging to the top of his arm too.

"I've been staying at Rachel's; she helped me make a volcano, because you were sleeping. I got first place in the competition because my volcano had a village and people and foam lava." Puck just smiled at her enthusiasm while wondering just how long he'd been in the hospital. She'd asked him about helping her with her project before the crash, the day before it. She was supposed to have had a week to figure it out.

"We've all been worried about you, Noah." Rachel ran her fingers over the top of his hair, smiling slightly. "Your Dad hasn't left your side since he got here." There's a small flick of her eyes over to where his dad is, standing outside his room, talking on his cell phone.

He's not too sure why she tells him that, he's not even sure why it matters. The biggest thing is that his mother lied to them for so many years. The old man never wanted to leave, she forced him out. It didn't really matter that his dad was gay, did it? Kurt was queer and the kid was okay; Rachel's dads were gay and they were two of the best dads that Puck knew. He isn't sure what it means for him and Sarah, although it has to be something right; they aren't orphans because they have their dad. He's right there. But is he sticking around or does he have family somewhere else? Would he try to move them somewhere else? Puck just doesn't have the energy to deal with it right now.

"Hey squirt, you wanna head on back to Rachel's?" Sarah doesn't look like she wants to. "C'mon, it's just a little while longer; I need to heal up before they'll let me leave." She's careful as she leans over, hugging his neck tightly and kissing his cheek before climbing down with Rachel. She gives him a nod and squeezes his leg through the blanket, talking to his dad outside and taking Sarah home with her.

"You look beat, kiddo."

"All this sleeping must be hard work." He was still pretty tired; a week of sleeping and he was tired, it didn't really make much sense to him. "Or the talking." It's not like he's overly prone to doing much of that, but he's starting to worry about just what is going to happen now, where are him and Sarah going to stay? What's his dad been doing all these years? How is this going to change things?

"Get some sleep, son. We can deal with everything when you're better rested." It's not like he really has the strength to argue anyway.

#

It's a bit like déjà vu when he wakes up again. His dad is sitting in the same place as the day before, this time with a book on his lap. Sarah's curled up at Noah's side this time though, sleeping away and there's another guy sitting beside his dad, someone that Noah doesn't recognise at all, but the guy's sitting with a hand on his dad's thigh. Puck shifts a little, hissing slightly as his side protests to the movement.

"Easy there, bud." The book is placed down and the old man is there at his side to help him pull himself up a bit, the pillow being sat up to help support his back. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just stiff." His back hurts a little, his side is in knots from the slight pull, his arm is a little sore too, but he figures that's mostly due to it being broken and all. "Time is it?" He's careful about placing his good hand on the top of Sarah's head, mindful on the IV still in the back of his hand.

"Just after five," there's space just by Puck's feet for him to perch and the other guy sort of leans forward in his chair while Sarah sleeps on beside Puck's hip. "Rachel dropped her off after her dance class. She wanted to see you." He doesn't mind much, it's got to be hard for her, right? She never really understood when Papa G died, now it's Nana G and Ma. He trusts that Rachel's probably helped her deal with the explanations, but she'll be a long way away from accepting it. And she's kind of adorable when she sleeps, just like she was when she was tiny.

"Who's your friend?" He's pretty sure this is possibly, maybe, kind of his dad's boyfriend or something. The way they glance at each other sort of furthers that impression —Nana Connie only had one son, his dad, and three girls, and his Aunts are sort of spread out over Ohio and he's met all their husbands.

"Oh, Noah, this um, this is Richard." Richard looks to be the same age as Puck's dad; he's got sandy blond hair, a nice looking suit and this careful sort of way he sits there; like he's not sure of his welcome. "Richard and I um, we—"

"Go at it like rabbits? Bump uglies? Make the beast with two backs?" Puck smirks slightly, he's sort of amusing himself now. "I kinda figured he was your boyfriend." Really, he's mostly okay with the gay thing. It doesn't bother him. He's surprised really that it doesn't bother him at all, his biggest issue is his mother if he's honest, because she lied and she made him hate his dad for the better part of eight years and he can't exactly hate his ma now, because she's dead, and that's like super disrespectful to the dead or something and Nana G would clip his ear for that.

"And, you... I mean..."

"What your father is trying to ask, Noah, is if you're okay with that?" They probably think that Ma raised him and Sarah to hate fags or something. And yeah, okay, he's probably not the most obvious in his utterly unbiased opinion about that stuff, because people probably think that's what the whole thing with Kurt was about. And this is Lima, it's not like everyone is all open arms and open hearts or whatever. But it's not like he's going to get out the white hoods or whatever and start lynching people. Or was that just racist stuff, not homophobic stuff? He had no idea. But if there was one thing he'd learned from all his ma's crazy Jew movies and shit, it was that gays were just as persecuted as the Jews, so really, it's not a big deal.

"Dude, I don't care where you dip your stick." He'd shrug if it didn't hurt too much. "Rach has two dads. They're pretty cool. Hiram and Leroy. You met 'em?" Richard nods at him, and it makes sense if Rachel was taking care of Sarah for a while. "How long you two been together?"

"Five years." Longer than any of his ma's attempts at dating, because his ma sort of turned into this man hater, or she just picked really stupid guys to go on dates with and more than once Puck had told her to get real and told the assholes to go to hell. Seriously, she had no taste at all. And that, that right there, he's suddenly hit with the fact that there won't be any more of that.

"Didja know that Ma tried to date a few guys? There was this one guy, Michael. He was pretty cool. She met him while Nana G was away on some old lady cruise or whatever. He was around for nine weeks and I don't know, she really liked him. Nana practically tore into Ma when she found out he was Catholic." Ever since then, his ma went on about him and a nice Jewish girl. "So, Richard, are you Jewish?"

"No, Noah," Richard at least laughs at the question, "I'm an atheist."

"Kurt's an atheist." Kurt's also gay. "What do you do?" If he says anything about fashion design or whatever he's totally going to have to smother himself with the pillow.

"I'm an accountant, actually."

"Family?"

"My parents are dead, but I have two brothers. Both are married with kids."

"None of your own?"

"No, I... I always knew that I was—"

"A fairy? Queer as a three dollar bill? A lover of dick? As gay as the day is long—"

"You have a lot of these?" There's a smirk on Richard's face, so Puck's pretty sure this guy isn't too bad if he can at least poke fun or appreciate a joke or two.

"You have no idea." So he finds out that Richard and his dad have been together in Cincinnati for five years, Richard works for the same firm his dad does; his dad is a financial consultant whatever that means, while Richard is a company accountant. They have two dogs together which is practically having kids for gays or something according to Richard; two labs, Mitzy and Fang.

Sarah wakes up somewhere in the middle of the story of how dad and Richard met (something about a broken down elevator) and she wants to know when Noah can come home, because she misses him. She's just too freaking cute sometimes. He knows he should enjoy it just now, because she'll be hell soon enough. Richard heads off to see if he can find a doctor and Sarah tucks into the chocolate pudding that was left for Puck's lunch that he missed.

"So, what's the ruling after the third degree?" See, the old man isn't so bad. He's actually pretty much like Puck remembered him. He still has the same mannerisms, the same gestures, he's the same guy that Puck has these random memories of from when he was seven and his dad was his hero. And yeah, his ma took that away from them but it's not like he can't get it back or something.

"Hmm, I guess he's okay."

"Really? Because, well, you're only seventeen, and you and Sarah, you, well." Okay, this whole anxious thing, that's what Sarah does. Puck shares a small smirk with her, because she just climbs over Puck's legs carefully, sitting herself in their Dad's lap.

"Daddy, are you going to stay with me and Noah? You can bring your boyfriend too. And then we can be like Rachel's family. They're really nice. Is your boyfriend really nice?" The innocence of an eight-year-old is a great thing.

"The first person to get me a plastic fork to scratch my arm gets to do whatever the hell they want." Because seriously, broken arm or not, that shit is itchy.

#

He's told he needs to wait four more days and they'll run some more tests to see how he's holding up and then determine if he'll get to leave the hospital. He eventually has to kick his dad out of his room to sleep in a proper bed around day two of his four more days. He's sitting up without too much discomfort and playing cards with Quinn when the old man comes back from a ten hour exile from Puck's room.

"You look less like a zombie now, dude. They might stop trying to wheel you out to the morgue." Because as much as he kinda likes knowing that his dad wants to stick around, he doesn't need the dude making himself sick or a cripple from sitting in that chair like that. "Quinn, my dad. Dad, this is Quinn." Quinn smiles her bright smile at him, nodding her head and he's already told her everything that he'd got from his dad that pretty much contradicted what his ma had told him.

"Mr. Puckerman, it's a pleasure." Quinn is almost as good as Rachel at schmoozing parents.

"Right, you're the girl with the flowers." She just nods and his dad shoots a look at Puck that just makes the jock roll his eyes. "The nurse said you were out of bed today?"

"They let me walk to the end of the hall, turn around, and come back. I don't get it. There's nothin' up with my legs, it's my arm that's fucked." Quinn just pokes him in the leg with her finger; it's her way of getting him to stop swearing. "Ow, woman." Even if it doesn't exactly _hurt_ , it's the principle.

"Okay, I should head out. Everyone's asking after you." She leans over to kiss his cheek and he just smiles nicely, no rude comment or innuendo, because he's playing nice.

"Thank you for my flowers." Because really, he's a little touched that she bothered, "Would you like to take them?" But they're still flowers. Even if they are in a black vase with a red bow wrapped around it. Orchids aren't exactly _girly_ but he's not overly fussed about keeping them.

"Can I?" He just nods and she grins, picking up the vase and really, she's such an Indian giver. "Thank you." But she'll get more pleasure out of them than he will having them sitting on his bedside and he'll be out of there soon anyway.

"Don't say I don't give you shit." She actually gives him the finger as she walks out.

"So," his dad shifts to the end of the bed, where Quinn just was, looking out the door while Puck pulls all the cards back together, kind of glad that Quinn had brought them for him because he was losing his mind now that he wasn't sleeping all the time. "Are you dating that one, or Rachel?" Puck stares at the door, frowning before shaking his head.

"Actually, I dated both of them but we're not together. Rach is kinda just a friend," that he'd totally still bang, "and uh, Quinn and I had a baby." He hadn't actually told his dad about that, but like, when was he supposed to work that in. "Last year, little girl, Rachel's biological mom adopted her." Which was still just a little weird, especially if the rumours that Ms Corcoran was really coming back to Lima this year were true. "Her name's Beth. My daughter, not Rachel's mom."

"I have a granddaughter?"

"Surprise." He figures that well, they're sort of even, right? He's got the 'hey, you're a grandparent' thing and his dad had the 'by the way I'm gay' thing. Not that it's a competition or anything.

"Any other big surprises?" Puck's pretty sure he's got tonnes to list, not that he really wants to break them out; the cougars, the money he owed for slashing tires, the drinking from giving up Beth, the juvie stint, his whole attitude change after he hit eight. He's got a fair amount of baggage really.

"Not really." He's not really up for dragging all his short comings out; his dad will probably hear about all his shit anyway.

"Okay, so, Richard and I have been looking, and we've found a pretty decent house in the area. We can get transfers into Lima and move from Cincinnati fairly easy. Unless you and Sarah would rather move to Cincinnati with us." He was tempted, for sure. A move to Cincinnati would mean a whole new slate, it would mean senior year without any of the expectation or baggage or whatever. And yeah, he probably wasn't going to be playing football this year anyway, by the time he got his cast off there'd be no point in putting him on the starting team. But Sarah had friends, and he honestly counted the glee kids as his friends, and they made it to _Nationals_ last year. They could win it this year, this was their shot. And yeah, he totally wanted to.

"You guys really cool about moving here or are you just sayin' that?" His dad just smiled, patted his knee and assured him that it wasn't a problem.

So, they get a house. And Puck is hit with the fact that his dad and Richard are fucking well off or some shit, because they get a place in Rachel's neighbourhood and that shit doesn't come cheap. By the time Puck gets out of hospital they've mostly moved in and got the dogs over and Sarah is fucking insanely happy because they have _pets_. Fang is a total dork and follows Sarah everywhere while Mitzy practically lives in the kitchen or sleeps at the bottom of the stairs. It's sorta cool.

The first night he's home, Richard makes matzo ball soup. It's weird how much like home it feels already.

#

Since Rach is like right around the corner, she comes around a lot to help him catch up on his missed work from class. He's not overly thrilled, but he figures if he's not playing football this year he better make a point of getting his grades up if he wants any college to take him serious when it comes to applying. She comes with him to visit his mother and grandmother's graves, since he missed the funerals because he was unconscious. He still can't figure out how he feels about his mother.

He can't remember the last thing he said to her, can't remember if he'd pissed her off with something or not. He remembers latkes for breakfast, remembers the last time they went to Temple, remembers playing guitar for her and Sarah one night while they danced in the living room after some really lame show on television. He remembers not getting in trouble at school so he didn't need to see her being all disappointed in him, he does remember that she kissed him on the cheek the night before the accident, because he'd cleaned up the house before she came in from work and made dinner.

He figures it's better than knowing if he'd pissed her off or not. He kind of hopes he hadn't.

"You know, he really cares about you." Rachel sits on his floor and plays Mario Kart while he types out an essay one handed, "I just mean, it's obvious that he loves you and Sarah." Rachel tends to do this thing where she points out how hard his dad is trying and how he's clearly devoted to being there now and how it wasn't really his fault he wasn't there before. Puck's not sure why, but he doesn't really question Rachel's motives, because he figures it'll mostly just cause a headache or something.

"Yeah," but Puck knows this, because his dad makes a point of coming home from work early, even though he's transitioning from one company to another just so that he'll be there for dinner, Richard tries it as much as possible too. One of them will drive Sarah to school every morning and they've already planned on dropping Noah off when he goes back to school the following week. And yeah, they sort of went all out on Sarah and him with the new stuff, and Puck gets that they aren't trying to _buy_ their affection or whatever, but it's kinda nice and all that. And they take an interest. Like, after his dad met Quinn and obviously Rachel, he asked about Puck's other friends and remembered what Puck said and stuff, he found out about Puck's clubs and hobbies, about Sarah's hobbies and after school stuff. She even got new dance shoes. "He got all teary eyed and stuff when he figured out that my guitar is the one he left behind."

Even though Puck can't play just now, his dad sort of snagged a quick play. It sort of reminded him what it was that got him into playing really.

"So, everything is going well?" It's like Rachel is über invested in him slotting in okay with the new dynamic, because it's sort of new. He has, basically, two parents all of a sudden. And neither of them are his ma. But see, there are things that just work with this now. Like when they actually sit down around a table for a meal rather than in front of the television, it's pretty cool. And having the dogs is sort of awesome. They're big and noisy and sort of messy sometimes, but it's cool that Sarah drags him out twice a day to walk them and play in the park. Because his sister is totally less of a brat and he likes her like 90% of the time now rather than only 75% of the time. Which is cool.

"Yeah, it's good. Sarah's sometimes calling Richard Dad, like she forgets or something."

"What do you call him?"

"Dick." He does it mostly to get a rise out of her, because he misses Rachel's little moments and he's actually looking forward to glee again so he can catch up on them.

" _Noah_ ," he can't keep a straight face though, and the only thing that saves him from getting a pillow thrown at him is when he reminds her that he's got a broken arm and some busted ribs.

#

It's not exactly smooth sailing though; not when Sarah starts asking _why_ Ma and Nana are gone, or if Richard and Daddy are going to leave too, or the time Noah ends up hunched over the toilet puking up blood because his rib moved again and there's a tear somewhere and he needs to go back in for another operation. He misses another two weeks of senior year because of this.

He's back at school for a day before the first brick comes through their window. Puck doesn't even need to ask who the fuck it was, because he knows the handwriting of the hockey jocks just from the way they write 'fag'. He socks the guy at school the next day, screw his probation, and screw his broken wrist, and screw detention. He makes sure that people know if it ever happens again he's going to break someone's face because his fucking _little sister_ was in the house and that shit was not kosher. He doesn't really care about the name calling and shit, but the moment someone does something that could hurt Sarah he's going to break skulls. It's a little weird that he ends up closer friends with Rachel, Kurt and Blaine that year, but he's totally not down with that homophobic shit hitting his sister in any way.

"So, the school called this afternoon." He hits pause on the video game, setting down the controller and looking at Richard. He gets that his dad is kind of shit at this 'discipline' stuff, because he's like worried about boundaries or something and how he hasn't been there so does he really have a right. Richard doesn't seem too overly worried and he handles Sarah's temper tantrums pretty well. Puck figures the guy deserves a chance anyway. "Apparently there was a fight?"

"I wouldn't call it a fight." He's not going to lie and bullshit, he didn't do it to his ma, and he won't try it now. Yeah, he's fucked up a few times; yeah, he has a bit of an anger management issue. But it wasn't like he wasn't provoked. "I punched a guy in the face, probably broke his nose."

"Want to tell me why?" With Richard, he gets to explain himself; other people put it down as him being a bad kid, or just a rebellious teen. He's not anything but a bully and an angry boy with temper issues going nowhere but back to juvie to most people. Richard at least gives him a chance, which he doesn't need to; his dad does it because he partly blames himself and Puck partly blames him too, just like Puck partly blames his mother and himself for this shit.

"Because he was the piece of shit that threw the brick through the living room window. While Sarah was in the house, he didn't know where she was." Sarah had been in the kitchen when it happened, the dogs went nuts and only the window, the coffee table and a few picture frames got damaged, but if it happened again, things might not turn out so lucky. "So I made it very clear that if it happens again there would be blood." For a minute it almost looks like Richard's actually going to yell at him or something.

"Noah," instead he just shakes his head, "not everything can be solved with violence." He sounds like Rachel did while she'd checked his knuckles weren't too badly bruised. "But, I understand why you reacted how you reacted, I respect that you told the truth and that you acted to protect your sister."

"And not just her, dude. Brick coulda hit anyone. That shit ain't cool." Next time a brick goes through Hummel's window, or Rachel's window, or Blaine's windscreen, he'll do the exact same thing. "But hey, if you've got to ground me or whatever, I totally understand." His ma was terrible at that shit, because she worked so much she had no clue if he stayed in or not. Usually he didn't because she would ground him for the lamest shit ever. At least now he sort of got why he needed to deal with that shit.

"I don't think that's necessary. Just, you know, sit up here and think about what you've done." Richard shrugs with a smirk and Puck's pretty sure this guy is a lot like him.

#

The day he gets the cast off his arm —which they re-wrap in some mesh cast thing for another four weeks, just to be sure the bone is strong enough— he drags Rachel out to the mall afterwards. She was his ride to the hospital and back, so it made sense to somewhat kidnap her and get Kurt and Blaine to meet them there.

"Is there a reason we're shopping today?" He gets that he's sort of pulling her away from Finn time or whatever, but this shit is important. Blaine and Kurt seem just as interested since Puck avoids shopping with them like it's a chick flick.

"Okay, here's the deal, anyone makes a comment and I will pay Santana to bitch slap you." Because Rachel's a chick and he doesn't hit chicks, and Kurt and Blaine are just little and shit and he'd break them with a slap never mind a punch. "Dad and Richard's anniversary is next week. I've never done the anniversary thing, so me and Sarah need a gift for their six year mark. Suggestions?"

Rachel thinks it's incredibly sweet of him to get his dad and Richard a gift, but really it's Sarah; she's sort of this really adamant little hellion and she was learning things in school that Puck didn't even want to think about, but apparently they needed to buy a gift and cook a nice romantic dinner for the anniversary because that's what people do. Puck doesn't know anyone who does this outside of the TV set, but arguing with Sarah is like beating his head against a wall.

So they do the whole thing, Kurt picks out these monogrammed matching date books bound in leather and made from recycled paper, because his dad seems fairly old school and prefers pen and paper to technology and Richard's as bad as Rachel when it comes to saving the planet. He makes dinner, Sarah sets the table and when the pair of them come in from work Puck and Sarah disappear with the dogs to leave them some space. They come back an hour and a half later and Richard has their Dad sort of pinned against the fridge, and seriously, Puck could've timed this better.

"Dude," the dogs run off through the house, Sarah snickering beside him while Richard and their Dad jump apart. "No one wants to see their parents making out. No one." He makes the point with a finger pointing between them before Sarah drags him into the living room. "Happy anniversary."

#

It's later that same night, Puck's finishing off his homework, he's mostly just sitting at his desk, swivelling in his chair and not answering the history question because it's stupid, when his dad knocks on the door and comes in.

"How ya doin' kiddo?" For the most part, Puck just hates that he's still side-lined from sport because of a car crash that happened at the beginning of the school year.

"Not bad. Do you think arguing that Marie Antoinette was a hot ass crazy chick is a viable explanation for the French Revolution?" The fact that Rachel even got him to watch that movie was solely because of Kirsten Dunst and the possibility of a boob shot.

"I don't think that'll go down well." At least he doesn't get yelled at for objectifying women when he says shit like that. "Listen, um, thanks, for tonight. You and Sarah didn't need to do that."

"Ah, how many times do you get to celebrate your six year anniversary?" He had to listen to three romantics gush about anniversaries and their ideal views on how they'd like theirs to go and really, he sort of just shrugged cause, like six years with one person was a little mind blowing for him. But then, his dad and ma had been together for seven years before his dad told his ma the truth or whatever and they went their separate ways. The Berry's had been together longer than Rachel was alive.

"Listen, it was um, it's the comment, actually. That's why I'm dropping by, really." What blows Puck's mind is just how much like his dad he's not. See, his old man does this rambling, anxious unsure thing that Sarah does sometimes. Sarah blurts out words in any order and pulls at her hair and fidgets. His old man does that too, it's this long rambling stutter with unsure pauses and he's wringing his fingers together. Noah, he's like his ma, they just blurt out whatever it is they have to say, even if it's blunt as shit, but they get the point across. Richard is kinda like that too, he's not a beat around the bush kind of guy, and Puck sees that it balances his dad's little anxious thing.

"You mean the one about you two making out in the kitchen? It's not 'cause you're guys you know? Ma making out with Michael was freakin' weird too, okay, hell, Mrs. H and Mr. H mackin' at their wedding was a little awkward. Parents just aren't meant to make out in front of kids. I prefer to believe that you have no sex drive, even though I know it's a lie. I'm very good at lying to myself." His dad chuckles slightly, even though there's a blush on his cheeks. Old people blushing, it's weird.

"No, it's not the kissing thing. It's the, well, the parent thing. You, um, you and Sarah. Well, I mean, Sarah's been calling Richard Dad for I don't know how long now." Puck does, the first time she did it was two weeks after they moved into their new house, she did it because she wanted to stay up an extra hour and watch the end of Pretty Woman —which Puck was not cool with— and she knew that if she pulled out the big panda eyes and called Richard 'Dad' he'd be so in awe that he'd give her a unicorn if she'd asked. "But, you're okay with it? I mean, you and Richard get along okay, I know but like—"

"It's cool, Dad. Okay. 'Cause," see he hates this stuff, 'cause he actually needs to talk shit through with his dad because he needs reassurance that he's not like, over stepping his bounds or something because he's been absent for so long. And yeah, Puck was a little unsure at first, he had limits he needed to test out, but they did it pretty good. So he's cool about it now. But seriously, it was a little exhausting sometimes. "Ma was great, and she tried really hard. I know she did some messed up stuff, and it's cool if you're not down with her, but she wasn't always _there_. We weren't exactly a stable family, in any kind of way. But you and Dick, it's cool, okay. We like him, Sarah fuckin' loves him, and he's pretty awesome, so it's chill. He's practically a step-dad anyway, right?"

He's not sure what it is, but there's this look on his dad's face, it might be pride, it might be surprise —it sort of looks like he's going to do the teary eyed man hug thing really— and Puck really hopes that the old man pulls it together before this shit gets weird. It's not like with his ma; he misses her yeah, like when something happens that he knows she'd appreciate and he'd just turn around and tell her and laugh, but she's not there to do it with. Or when someone would say something and he can hear the comment she'd make and he sort of waits for it before he realises that she's not going to say anything because she's gone. But see, he's got this stuff he can do with his dad that's sort of like that, and Richard comes away with comments that Puck can totally appreciate. And Sarah does adore him; she's all about having two dads and being awesome. She's only once ever gotten upset over someone saying something about her not having a ma anymore and because she's so awesome she literally punched the little shit in the dick and told him her Ma was in heaven and he'd better watch his mouth or she'd get the Jewish God to go all epic on their ass (Jew God is badass, he's the one that did the plagues and shit).

So yeah, his dad is his dad and Richard is like, their unofficial step-dad. It's totally cool and works, and really, he's not fussed.

#

Most of the women at Temple fawn over his dad. Since Richard doesn't practice a faith, he doesn't go with them, but it's not too bad. Rachel says it's obvious where Puck's charisma comes from, and apparently it's the same place as his looks. It's probably not even the fact that they all think the old man is single what with his ma being gone —the number of women who try to console his Dad over that would be laughable if it wasn't pathetic— and most of them seem to forget that his ma and dad haven't even been together for the last eight years so he's got no clue what the big deal is. But Dad was pretty good at deflecting most of them, keeping it polite but being pretty firm that he wasn't interested.

Puck and Richard kept a tally on the fridge as a joke on just how frequently the women hit on his dad.

It only becomes awkward one week when his dad brings up something that Mrs. Marx had said. Rachel was over for dinner like she sometimes ended up doing on Saturday's, Sarah had opted for a night at her friend's house so it was just the four of them when his dad just blurted it out.

"Noah, what did Evelyn Marx mean when she offered to see if the old horse was as good a ride as the younger one?" Puck literally choked on his dinner and Rachel had to thump his back to dislodge the potato stuck in his throat. Mrs. Marx was one of those 'married an older man for his money and status but got screwed over in the prenup and can't leave him so just fucks around on him' type of marriages, even though her husband probably knew about the guys she fucked, since it was common knowledge to most of the guys that _he_ had like four mistresses or something (they were all younger than Mrs. Marx). Puck fucked her about a month into sophomore year, before the thing with Quinn, before the thing with glee, pretty much before anything really hit his radar beyond sex and money and Puck had kind of just gone with it because hey, sex and money.

What he didn't expect was Mrs. Marx to practically advertise the fact to his father. At Temple. Where her husband attended. And the rest of the Jewish community -because they weren't exactly a majority in Lima.

See, Puck might not exactly bite his tongue about what goes on, and most people sort of knew that he'd banged half the housewives in Lima, just like most people knew he'd banged more than half the chicks at McKinley and just about a third of the ones at Carmel and two of the Carmel substitute teachers. But he didn't exactly make a point in letting adults who he wasn't banging know that he was banging adults —what with the whole him not being eighteen yet and stuff. Not to mention he was basically a prostitute. Did his mother know that he had sex? Yes, he got a girl from school pregnant; his mother was never under the impression that he was a saint for crying out loud. Did his mother know that he'd had sex with three of the seven women in her coffee club? No, she did not. Did she know that he'd banged just about three quarters of the Lima Hope Church congregation? No, she did not. She knew that he didn't just sleep with girls at school, but she wasn't aware that he was having sex with women who were married and just a few years shy of being _her_ age or in some cases older, like with Mrs. Marx (which, when he thinks about it, kinda creepy).

He's still coughing up a lung while his dad and Richard stare at him and he's trying to figure out just how the fuck to explain Mrs. Marx's comments without pretty much selling himself as a teenage prostitute. Rachel's not really helping too much beyond thumping his back and stroking it in alternating patterns.

When he's finally able to breathe again, and his eyes stop watering from the agony burning in his chest from lack of oxygen, he's met with two expectant stares and Rachel's look of 'I told you this day would come and you only have yourself to blame' directed at him (seriously, she can say that with a look).

"Noah, is there something we need to talk about?"

"Well, dinner was great, thanks very much, I'll see you later. Night." He has never seen a Rachel Berry exit that fast and lacking in melodrama before in his life. It pretty much leaves him in the kitchen, at the table with what has started to become his parents in just about every way and he knows he's fucked.

"So, there might've been this whole _thing_ , where, y'know. I had sex with her." He just blurts it right out. Richard's potato at least gets spat across the table rather than inhaled whole. "And about twenty percent of the housewives in town. Maybe twenty five. At a push forty." He's fairly certain it's more than that but he's not really up for figuring out the maths.

"You... you've... there's..." impersonating a goldfish is something his dad does pretty well; Puck's really got to give him that. Although to be fair, Puck probably needs to stop springing this stuff out of the blue.

"You _slept_ with a forty-year-old woman?" Richard doesn't have that problem.

"To be fair, she was thirty eight when I slept with her." But also married and with a kid who was like, four years younger than Puck.

"You, wait, you were sixteen when you— _Noah_ , that's illegal."

"So is drinking under twenty one but I still got blackout drunk and drove Ma's car through the side of a building." The thing with this whole 'different house, different parents' thing is that his ma knew his shit. His ma knew when he was fucking around because shit was getting to him, she knew when he was just ballsing up because he was pissed off and it was easier to get drunk and pass out than to beat the ever loving fuck out of something and possibly get arrested —that backfired with the car through a building thing, but it was 90% effective. But his dad? Richard? They sort of knew him after he'd started getting his shit straight because this wasn't what he wanted to be. So pulling up all his fuck ups is sort of a bummer.

"Let me get this straight. You've engaged in intimate—"

"Can you just call it sex? Please? I get enough of the 'copulation' and 'intercourse' and 'sexual interaction' from Rachel."

"Okay, sex, you've had sex with women, older women, who are married?"

"Yes." He likes direct questions, direct questions he can just answer because he doesn't lie, because what's the fucking point in that shit?

"And you were technically underage?"

"Also yes."

"And you were a father at sixteen?"

"We don't talk about that, but yes." Because Beth is still an issue. An issue because Shelby Corcoran has plans to return to Lima with Puck's little girl, she is in touch with Rachel —who is her biological daughter whom she gave up— and Rachel is sort of passing information to Puck about Beth, including pictures and no one is telling Quinn because she's still not ready to deal with it and holy Moses it's just this whole big thing that gives him a headache worse than when Kurt starts talking about the differences between chiffon and lace and why both of them are acceptable accessories for men (they are not, no matter what Hummel says).

"Oy, Noah," his dad sort of rubs at his forehead and Puck senses one of those 'we need to talk about this' situations that he sort of wants to head off before it starts.

"Look, I— I've done some stuff, like, a lot of stuff, really it's a shit load of stuff that I'm not overly proud of. Except that time with the lawn furniture on the roof which was kind of epic and kind of douchey, but totally awesome at the same time anyway." He's getting off point, "But yeah, I've slept around and I got a girl pregnant and kind of got the whole school high one time and I slashed some tires, and yes I drove a car into a building while drunk and underage and not insured and ended up in juvie," wow, he's not even eighteen and he's done that shit? That's like twenty five years' worth of shit kind of condensed a fair amount. "I'm not saying I don't fuck up, I do. A lot. But I was a kind of messed up kid." He's not saying it's not his fault; he totally made those decisions, even when he knew shit was fucked, he went along with it anyway, but he wasn't exactly in a good mental place. "It's not like that anymore. Really."

Richard tries to get him to explain it all, and fucking hell if this talking stuff is pretty exhausting. Because he's got to try and express how he's _feeling_ and half the time he can't even understand that himself never mind explain it to someone else. He figures the turnaround for him might've been coming out of juvie. He was certain that he wasn't going to end up like some of those guys, he wasn't going back into that place and he didn't care what it took really. So, he ended up with better friends from that -–like Artie, and Tina by default because Artie and Tina sort of like, started to hang out more, and then there was Rachel after that whole Sectionals thing, and he got serious with Lauren and didn't really have time to go off the deep end and shit all over his progress.

So his dad kind of understands things. And they're sort of cool with knowing all this, and Puck makes a point of phoning Rachel to call her a deserter and ask if she wants to come back over for her dessert since she fucking made it.

Mrs. Marx is told, in no uncertain terms, that neither Puckerman, senior or junior, will be entertaining her come-ons anymore. Puck sort of hears from Rachel that his dad told Mrs. Marx if she tried anything he'd have her arrested for statutory rape without batting an eyelid.

The women at Temple stop hitting on his dad after that.

Sectionals is in Cincinnati, and for the first time ever, his dad and Richard pull Sarah from school for the day and drive through so that they can watch the competition. They don't go the original song route again, Rach is working on one song for Nationals (if they get there) and they'll do covers for the rest of the competition.

Schue felt it was high time he let them get more involved in their planning; more accurately with the combined power of Blaine, Kurt, Rachel and Santana, Schue didn't have much option but to give them more control. Kurt and Rachel are opening their set with 'Fly Me to the Moon', a few weeks of laughing and joking around with it as an idea just sort of snowballed until Brittany was arranging them all in sets to dance around while Kurt and Rachel sang. And neither Rachel or Mercedes pitched any kind of diva fit when Blaine was given 'Moondance' as the solo while they all worked on 'Come Together' for their group number. Mike and Britt went crazy with the choreography on the group number while Santana and Puck snickered behind their hands at the carefully planned arrangement of their set list. It's just another adrenaline rush and since Invitationals was a total walk in the park, it feels like their first actual competition of the year. Which naturally gets Rachel fired up.

She spends five minutes agonising over the quality of their performance after watching the other groups perform and biting her nails that Puck and Kurt just kidnap her while Blaine stands guard.

"What is wrong with you?" Kurt seriously is as lost as Puck in this one, because they're well-rehearsed and it's fresh for them, it's not the same old routine of reworked songs and Mr. Schue's musical fetishes because they've got a different dynamic now. But Rachel still seems worried.

"What if we weren't good enough, what if they vote for the other teams? What if we don't get to Regionals or Nationals? This is it, this is our last chance, if we fail now then we—" Kurt slaps Rachel across the face.

"Dude! Chill." She's a little stunned and there's a red mark starting to come up.

"I didn't hit her hard."

"Man, you don't hit her at all." Rachel's already starting to tear up. "Go get her a bottle of water, yeah?" Puck gets one of the cool gel packs to place against her cheek while Kurt throws his hands up in the air to go and get the bottle of water. "Y'okay, Rach?"

"He didn't really hit me very hard." Puck honestly doesn't get it; Rach gets hysterical sometimes and Kurt slaps her, Kurt gets hysterical and Rach slaps him. He knows that Blaine hates it about as much as he does, but they just do it and apparently 'it's a thing' or whatever. Puck thinks it's stupid.

"Are you gonna calm down about this whole thing?" She nibbles her lip and that's enough of an answer. "Seriously, we were great, there's no way we won't go through. It's not even gonna be like last year with that bullshit two people winning thing, because we rocked and they can't not vote for us. So, take a pill and cool your crazy for a bit."

And Puck's right, they do win, and they are through to Regionals, and Rachel just laughs with him and hugs his waist while the group jumps around and celebrates. It's backstage, in the halls that lead to the dressing rooms that Puck is attacked by his littlest terror throwing herself at him. He's pretty lucky that the mesh bandage thing is sturdy. She's got her usual battle cry of 'Noah' as she flings herself at him, which is mostly just his warning to catch her.

"Jeez, kid, what are you eating?" She's still small enough that she can perch on his hip and cling to his neck, but it's getting to the point where she's far too heavy for him to keep up. And it's not even like she's a heavy kid, she's a freakin' stick insect or something.

"Noah, don't you dare give her a weight complex, she's not even nine yet." Rachel just bats at his arm and Sarah lights up.

"Your song was really great Rach, you and Baby Gay are awesome."

"Sarah, what've we said about things you hear at home?" It's too late now though, because Kurt is totally glaring at him and Santana is laughing.

"'M sorry. Baby Gay and Chocolate Thunder and Satan and Frankenteen and Trouty Mouth are just our names and I'm not meant to repeat them." She's grinning because she knows exactly what she's doing. "Can we go for ice-cream? Dad and Daddy are talking to someone from like, an old group of theirs or something. I was told to find you and stay outta trouble."

"I'm gonna drown you in the bath."

"I will never wash again." She goes completely limp in his arms and Puck's sure he's going to drop her, he still can't help but laugh at her antics. He's seriously throwing out Lilo and Stitch when he gets home because this is totally where she gets it from. "Bye Rachel, bye Quinn, bye collective losers." Puck's totally getting points from Quinn and Rach for them not being in the collective loser part, but he's totally going to catch slack from the others.

"You are so dead when we get home." He just takes his bag from Rachel, because they're staying the night in Cincinnati with Richard's brother's family so that they can meet Puck and Sarah, and heads out to the main hall to get her a damn ice-cream. "So what's with the brat routine?" Since she's totally just playing it up for the crowd or whatever.

"I thought you might've missed it?" And yeah, sometimes she's so nice it's really weird, but no, he didn't miss it. "Can I have a strawberry one?" So, they get ice cream and sit to wait for Dad and Richard to finish up talking to whomever. Except they don't, instead their dad sort of appears looking around and acting all shifty and really it's not good for him because he kind looks a bit demented when he does it.

"Okay, you're about to meet Richard's old boss and her husband, I warn you now she's very opinionated." Sarah just turns to Puck with a frown.

"What does that mean?"

"Means she's nuts." No one gets the chance to tell Puck off for the remark, not when Richard comes walking towards them with a fake smile on his face, and that's the first time Puck's seen it, and this woman with buoyant blond hair and a fat little man coming alongside him. "And has big, _big_ hair."

Mrs. Hammerman, who was Richard's boss with the company before they moved, insisted on them going out for dinner together. She just had to get to know Richard's new family. Mr. Hammerman, who Sarah said looked like that Fat Controller from her old Thomas the Tank Engine cartoons, barely said anything but nodded along whenever his wife said a thing. Halfway through dinner, Puck can see the tension starting to build on Richard's face and Mrs. Hammerman's comments start to get more and more mean-spirited. Not towards Richard or their dad but in regards to 'single mothers' and 'narrow-minded old goats' which doesn't take a lot of detective work to figure out what the hell she's saying.

"Sarah, finish up your dinner. We're gonna get a cab to Kevin and Alice's place Dad." Richard shoots him an apologetic look, and his dad just nods. They've addressed this, they've gone over it a few times just because Dad is insecure about the whole thing, and Puck's let go of the anger -–all of it, towards his dad, towards his ma, towards his nana, it's gone. He's done with it. And sitting there listening to this _opinionated_ woman wasn't doing him any favours.

"Oh, but we haven't had dessert yet, Noah. Why don't you stay a little longer?" She seriously was demented.

"I'm sorry, but my single mother and narrow-minded old goat of a grandmother raised me to be polite in the company of older women. I'm just about to lose patience and not bother biting my tongue, so I'm gonna go." He's pretty proud of himself for not exploding at her, because his mother wasn't a saint or anything, but she tried damn hard with what she had. Sarah puts her knife and fork down and slides out from the table.

"Just so you know, my mama might not've loved my daddy, but my mama loved me and Noah, and you don't know shit." Brat moments aside, Sarah is the most awesome little sister ever.

They get to Kevin and Alice's place to a frown and questions. All they need to do is mention Mrs. Hammerman and it's like everything is explained. Richard and Dad come back sometime around midnight, tired and drained and Sarah's sleeping on the couch already. Puck feels the need to apologise for leaving them with the witch, but really, he wasn't willing to sit there and listen to that from a woman who didn't know anything.

"Before you start," Richard just holds up his hand, his other linked with Dad's and the both of them smirking at him, "there have been times we've both wanted to say something to that woman. So thank you."

"However," they're heading up the stairs towards the bedroom that they're sleeping in when his dad turns back to him. "Stop teaching your sister how to swear."

"Dude, I did that when she was five." There is literally no going back for them there.

#

They have a Puckerman and Berry Hanukkah. It's possibly the first time they've actually had a big cooked dinner for the holiday, but Dad Berry and Richard went nuts on the cooking (because Richard may not practise a faith, but he's very fond of Jewish food) and they could probably live off the leftovers for the next few weeks.

And the Berrys are pretty cool too -–Puck's gotten to the stage where he's down with Rachel, she doesn't drive him to the brink of homicidal behaviour anymore and they can work with each other pretty well. Besides, she's not as crazy as she was two years ago and he's not as much of a douche as he was two years ago either.

So they spend most of winter break hanging out -–while their classmates all celebrate Christmas, Puck and Rachel take Sarah to Winter-Land in Columbus and she learns how to skate and ski, they build a snow fort in Rachel's yard and Sarah demands that they make a snow village in their own yard, complete with Mr. and Mrs. Snowman and child. It's probably a little weird, how much time he spends with his supposed best friend's girlfriend, but he's pretty sure that Rachel would claim him as her friend before Finn got a chance to argue and really, it's not that big a deal.

He goes to a party with Rachel, Blaine, Kurt and Mercedes before New Year. He's pretty sure it's Britt's idea -–a party on the thirtieth of December would just be a party if it were anyone else, but when it's Brittany, it's a pre-New-Year's-Eve Eve party. There are plenty of opportunities for a legit New Year's Eve party to go to, even a few that Rachel and the glee kids would be welcome to, but Richard has some tradition thing that he wants to do and Puck's fine with that -–it's sort of a big deal, because it's his first New Year with his dad since he was seven and it's the first year without their ma, so yeah, he's gonna be home for it, what of it?

The fact that when Rachel says she'd like to go home, Puck grabs his jacket, says goodnight and walks her out gets more gossip than the fact that he doesn't show up to any parties the following night anyway.

"You and Rachel?"

"What?" Quinn comes by the house on the fourth of the month. They're back in school in three days and she's working on some craft thing but needs some help with the technical aspects, so he's doing a little makeshift welding while Quinn sits and pets Mitzy in his room -–with the door open, because his dad isn't that much of a push over.

"What's going on there?"

"We're friends." Rachel is possibly the first time he's ever actually been friends with a girl. And as much as he might protest the fact, it probably started after she dumped him in sophomore year. So yeah, there was a 'him and Rachel' to the extent that they hung out and he got her to watch lame dubbed over Japanese films and she made him sit through a few musicals that didn't suck. He was trying to teach her the rules of football through each of the games he had to watch the team play but not participate in -–he'd never looked forward to the end of football season so much-– while she got him to work on actual scales and shit for singing and taught him a few baking recipes that didn't include weed.

"Just friends? Cause, really, I think Finn thinks otherwise." And Puck couldn't really gauge how Quinn felt about that from where he was sitting and how she was sitting with Mitzy. "I kind of overheard him telling her to stop seeing you." Puck puts down the stuff he's doing for her and turns to face her. Because Rachel pretty quickly turned into his best friend, and it was entirely probable that she was more his best friend than Finn had been. Yeah, him and Finn were cool, they were friends, but they'd never be best friends again. You kind of can't go back when you get a guy's girlfriend pregnant.

"What did she say?" Rachel's been by just as often as before, and he hung out at her place just two nights ago, so either she's told Finn where to shove it, or she's agreed and then just not told him when her and Puck were hanging out. Which is a little badass and a little crazy, because it'll explode in her face.

"I'm not sure if she said anything, because I left. And I know you like her," he's about to shoot her down in flames when she holds up a hand, halting him, "don't argue with me. I know you better than you think I know you. You _like_ Rachel. It's the reason you stick up for her, even when she's not around, it's the reason you rebuilt her patio decking with animal friendly chemical finish, it's the reason you do any song with her just because she asks you to play, it's the reason why you have her over for dinner every week and you go to hers every other week." And honestly, he hadn't noticed he did all that. He was sort of just used to her being around and helping with Sarah ever since the crash and that was probably where it stemmed from.

"Shit," because he'd just gone and developed fucking feelings for another of Finn Hudson's fucking girlfriends. "What the hell is wrong with me? Why can't I want a girl he's not dating?" Quinn and Mitzy just give him this look of sympathy and he has to force himself not to stab his eye out with the stanley knife next to him.

#

Realising that he has feelings for Rachel just makes shit awkward. Like his mother's birthday wasn't awkward enough.

He and Sarah are sitting at the kitchen table with cake and party hats, because Sarah insisted, when their dad walks in and just stares. It really is the type of scene that would justify stopping and staring. Sarah set the table for three, Puck's not sure if it's for their dad or the ghost of their mother. She made Puck bake a cake and ice it with Happy Birthday over the top and a few balloons and he'll forever deny being able to not only bake a cake, but ice and decorate it too. He only does this shit because Sarah is freaking demanding and it's important to her.

"What're we doing?" Dad drops his coat over the back of the living room couch and comes into the kitchen to have a little look. Puck just gives him the 'don't ask too many questions' look while Sarah beams at him.

"We're having a birthday party for Mama. She'd be thirty-five today." And Puck had been aware of this before his sister woke him up, pouting at him and wearing the paper hat. He'd been aware of the looming date for the last week and a half and really, he'd never envisioned this being how he spent it.

"But, Mama can't blow out her candle."

"I know, I'll do it for her, and I'll make a wish. And then that wish has to come true because it's the only present Mama can really have." Puck is ready to protest, he is, because Sarah makes the dumbest wishes ever and he can totally picture another awkward talk with Coach Beiste or Coach Sylvester or Mr Schue or hell, even Principal Figgins, just to try and get Sarah to believe her wish came true and that their ma's birthday is complete. He doesn't get the chance because she's right in there, blowing out the candle and he's fairly certain from the grin on her face that he's screwed.

"What did you wish for?" Dad sits down at the table, taking the seat that had been left out and Puck figures since Sarah isn't complaining, it was left there for him.

"I don't know if I should tell you, because then it might not come true." They'd never really done the whole 'don't tell what you wished for thing' because Sarah wasn't good at keeping things to herself. "Okay, I'll tell you. I wished that Noah and Rachel would get married and have babies. Because that's what Mama always wanted."

"Sarah," seriously, he's totally screwed. "You can't go wishing for things like that." Number one, because it's stupid. Number two, because Rachel is dating someone else. Number three, because it's stupid. "Rach and me are just friends, we're not getting married or having babies. She's dating Finn, remember? You like Finn."

"Nu-uh. Finn's a big doofus and he shouted at Fang." Puck even finds himself looking at Fang, as if for confirmation from the dog before he realises what the hell he's doing. Its nuts, because the dogs are pretty much family and stuff, so Sarah tends to think of them as her little brother and sister, even though Fang could practically swallow Sarah. "Rachel can't be with Finn because he's not Jewish."

"Sarah, kiddo," they've totally waited far too long to do the religion talk with Sarah, but Puck always figured that'd come after the birds and the bees talk, and he's already decided that Sarah's not getting that one until she's twenty-five. Maybe even thirty. "Being Jewish isn't a reason for your brother and Rachel to be together, just like not being Jewish isn't a reason she shouldn't be with Finn." Thank you, Dad. Even if Finn is terrible for Rachel, it's not because he's not Jewish and it's got nothing to do with Puck being jealous. Nope. Not at all. "Look at Richard and I, Richard isn't Jewish, but I still love him very much."

"Well, yeah. But Mama wanted Noah to be with a nice Jewish girl, and Rachel's the only nice Jewish girl that I like. So he's gotta be with her."

"Oh, sweet mother of Moses. Sarah, Rach and I aren't dating, she's with Finn, we're just friends, don't make wishes like that." She just glares at him and he glares right back. "Ma always wanted you to stop wearing nail polish 'cause you're too young. You gonna do that too?"

"No, cause I'm old enough now!"

"Not what Ma said. So, you still wear nail polish, Rach and I are _just friends_ and everything moves on." Yeah, his ma was never happier than when Puck 'fessed up to dating Rachel for all of a week. And yeah, she was disappointed when Rach dumped him, but she got over it. He's pretty sure that his ma always wanted him and Rach to at least be friends, because before him and her had their 'little falling out' (he called her crazy and she pushed him out of a tree, proving his point, and stopping them from talking to each other for six years) he wasn't half as bad as he was afterwards. Rachel might've been a bit of a good influence (apart from that whole pushing him out of a tree) or something.

So Sarah eats her cake and stops with the 'Rachel and Noah' thing and goes to play with Fang in the yard before Richard comes in from work and they order in dinner, as has become the Sunday night ritual. He clears up her mess of birthday crap, well aware of his dad just sitting there watching him. He waits for it though, rather than encourage the old man to voice his opinion sooner.

"You know, you were fairly adamant about you and Rachel's relationship being platonic." And yeah, he probably was a little too repetitive or whatever, but being smacked with a clue by four courtesy of Quinn Fabray and then having his nose rubbed in it? Not fun. "You sure there's nothing there?"

"Dad, could we not rehash this crap? Rach and I dated, didn't work out. She's nuts for Finn, she's always going to be nuts for Finn, I'm just her friend." It's totally not his fault that his dad can read into that, totally nothing to do with his wording or slumped shoulders or the fact that he really doesn't need to be reminded that once again, the girl he wanted picked Finn. "Just leave it, yeah?"

So it doesn't get mentioned again, not even when Rachel comes over the following week with red rimmed eyes, crying at Puck until he gets her some water, or the week after that when she's in the stands at the first baseball game of the season, cheering with his dad, his sister and Richard, or the next day when she's back over at Puck's house, telling him all about Finn's big apology and how they've made up. He just gets more sympathetic looks and Mitzy draping herself over his lap (apparently dogs can tell when their owners are upset) and Sarah frowning all the time because Rachel keeps talking about Finn.

Puck really wishes he could stop falling for Finn Hudson's girlfriends.

#

"So, you've been avoiding us."

"No I haven't." It's the weakest argument ever, because yes, he has. It's not that he doesn't want to hang out with Kurt and Blaine, but sometimes they're just so coupley it makes him want to beat himself in the face or puke all over their shoes. It's not exactly conductive to a healthy friendship. But the thing is, if Quinn can figure out that he likes Rachel, Kurt and Blaine probably already know too. Which sucks for him just a little, because Kurt likes playing match maker.

"Yes, you have. But it's okay, you can make it up to us." Kurt's good at not really giving him much of a choice; really, Richard is good at that too, so it might be a gay thing, or just a 'fashionable man' thing, because sometimes, it's scary when Richard pulls a Kurt. "There's a party, next Saturday, but it's sort of a jocks' party thing."

"You want to crash a jock party?" Puck doesn't get how this is him making it up to them.

"No, don't be obtuse, that is the highest form of rudeness." Of course, how dumb of him. "We were invited, Finn sort of got it okayed or whatever, but the point is that we've been invited to a jock party and we sort of want to go." Blaine's nodding with Kurt and Puck is still waiting for the punch line.

"And I am making it up, _how_?"

"By coming." Something that Puck's noticed is that Kurt starts the argument, or the suggestion, or even just the conversation, and Blaine takes over to make the point or get to the good bit or just explain what the hell Kurt just prattled on about. It's like they've been married for fifty years already. "You see, Finn and Mike and Sam will be there, sure, but they've all got their girlfriends," oh yes, thanks for that reminder, "so it's probable that they'll be distracted."

"And you want me there so that if it looks like the jokes on you I can beat the pulp out of someone?" Really, it's not so much a favour as potential stress relief. "Yeah, why not? I'm not doing anything that weekend. Maybe I can get Lauren to come too."

"Oh, absolutely," Kurt genuinely seems keen on the idea which Puck figures should be his first clue that something is seriously going on here. "The combined presences of Zizes and Puckerman and we'll be safe as houses." It's not even the alluding to Puck and Lauren being like protectors or anything that makes Puck think he's been duped. It's the shared grins between Kurt and Blaine and that smug little look Kurt gets in his eyes when he's plotting something.

Puck's beginning to think he should've kept on avoiding them.

#

They still go to the party, Puck convinced Lauren to just go with him and stop being such a worrier -–she seemed to think people would think they were back on if they showed up together, and he wasn't all that bothered, because she was badass and a great friend so screw everyone else. Lauren was dead on point, since not even twenty minutes after he showed up with her and Blaine and Kurt, Santana had him cornered in the kitchen of the house.

"Are you seriously back with the big white rhino?" Santana hadn't chilled on the names recently, not that Puck would've expected her to.

"Pack it in with that shit, San. What do you care anyway? Far as I heard, you weren't doing dick anymore." She glares at him, even as he reaches around her to grab two cans of soda, because he's not drinking and neither is Lauren.

"Don't you dare start with that," and Puck's possibly the only person who is aware that Britt and San are trying that whole 'dating' thing, as much as Brittany actually commits to one person, although Santana probably stands the best chance of keeping Britt if she comes out of the closet sometime soon and just enjoys herself. "Just because you've gotten all mellow and shit doesn't mean I won't end you."

"Whatever," he just walks away from her, because Santana is so hard to deal with these days. It's like all this repression is just winding her up like a little cog and she's getting ready to explode all over the place like last year just before Sectionals. Puck just hopes she's not gearing up to explode any time soon.

He spends the entirety of the party with Lauren, chilling at the back of the kitchen with her, occasionally having a thumb war and just shooting the breeze. He doesn't care what people say or think, he's past all that -–pretty much when he came out of juvie and was declared a lost cause he stopped worrying about what these losers thought of him. Kurt and Blaine just sort of flit around before realising that jock parties are just lame and average parties. So he leaves with Lauren and the little queens and spends the rest of his Friday night beating Richard at Halo.

"Party not that good?"

"Nah," the only plus side of playing with Richard is that the guy at least knows to keep moving and actually shoot. His dad does one or the other. "Kinda lame, but whatever. Just went there for Kurt and Blaine."

"Did you take that girl you like?" For some reason, his dad and Richard are all for him dating, even if he's not too bothered about it.

"I went with Lauren, she's my ex. Dude, you have a grenade, use it." Both of his parents, which is what he views them as, have met his exes (Santana included, for all that she is sort of an ex) and they seem to think that Puck doesn't have too bad taste in females, even if they can't actually nail down his type. Puck doesn't actually have a type though, so they'll be doing that for a while.

"Lauren's the wrestler? You and her thinking of trying again?"

"No, we're just friends." It's like his mantra lately, but he is genuinely just friends with the three girls that are most prominent in his life, even if he sometimes wishes it wasn't the case. "She's pretty chill, and totally badass."

"What about Quinn, or Rachel?" Puck's starting to think that Richard's been talking to his dad about this.

"Rach is dating Finn, and we're just friends. And Quinn and I work better as friends. When we dated we just argued and shit, its better without that crap getting involved." When he blows up Richard's head for the ninth time in the hour, he puts the controller down. "What's with the love life interrogation?"

"It's not an interrogation, it's just, well. You don't date. It's been five months and you've not gone out with a single girl. We're just wondering." His dad and Richard both know that he's straight, that he's definitely not gay or bi or whatever. But it's not like he's been out with hordes of girls. It's not even like he's all that bothered.

"I dunno, just not too bothered, I guess." For one thing he's slept with just about every girl in their school, and that's not really what he's even looking for right now. He's getting to grips with this relationship thing, and Lauren proved he could do it, even if they turned out to be better friends than boyfriend and girlfriend. She still rocked his world in more ways than one.

"So, it'll be a solo Valentine's Day for you?"

"Yeah. I guess. You and Dad doing that romantic crap?" He still manages to get either of them a little awkward when they talk about their relationship, seriously, old people blushing is just insane sometimes.

"We um, we have a table booked, yes."

"You want me and Sarah to find somewhere else to stay?"

"No, actually, your grandmother is coming through to stay for a while."

"Nana Connie? Seriously? She's staying for a few days? How long?" He does realise that he's excited about his grandmother visiting, but his grandmother, on his dad's side, is all kinds of epic and he hasn't seen her in forever. Mostly because Nana G was just always around and Nana G and Nana C just didn't get along.

"For a week, you think you and Sarah can handle your dad and me taking a weekend to ourselves?"

"Are you kidding, take the whole week!" So Nana Connie is coming to stay for the second week in February while Richard whisks his dad off for a Valentine's weekend to spoil each other and both Puck and Sarah are ten thousand times okay with this.

#

They're all gearing up for Regionals, even though they know that Schue will just change his mind right before the competition and they'll have something else to do. Everyone is planning what they'll be doing for Valentine's Day; Rachel expects Finn to do something special, Tina and Mike are having some dinner date without Mike's mom, Sam's taking Mercedes bowling, Santana and Britt are doing some super covert thing while Artie has a date with some girl from the A/V club.

Everyone is a little shocked that Quinn has no plans.

"Well, I would've, if _someone_ didn't blow me off." Puck just smirks at her, because she'd proposed them doing an anti-Valentine's thing, and normally Puck would be all for it, but his nana is there and he's spending as much time as he can with her. Which he knows Quinn understands she's just poking fun. "And for an old lady. My ego is so bruised."

"You know I love ya, Lucy Q," he gets smacked in the arm for using her real name, which he's only allowed to bust out once in a blue moon and even then she'll get pissed off if he implies anything behind it. "But someone got in there first."

"Cougars again, Puck? Guess there's no changing." Finn just shrugs at him and Rachel frowns at him while the others just glance away.

"No, dork face. My nana's visiting. Dad and Richard are going off to get some lovin' so me and Sarah get Nana for a week. It's like an epic deal."

"Nana Connie is up? Way to hold out, Puckerman!"

"You never said anything." Rachel seems a little dejected or some shit that he didn't tell her.

"Okay, what's so special about Puck's grandmother?" Blaine is obviously confused.

"Puckerman's grandmother is like the most badass woman alive. Nana Connie is epic. She made it out of Poland with her eldest daughter strapped to her back, sneaking past German soldiers and fuck knows what else. She can swear in like nine languages and totally makes the most epic desserts ever. Like, banquet for the President shit." Santana is literally gushing about his nana, and yeah, she's all awesome and stuff, but no one is cutting in on this.

"Don't even, you are not swinging by, you are not dropping in, you are not just in the neighbourhood. I will drown you in the pool, I swear to Moses." Quinn was the only one he told about his Nana coming. She'd asked him out and he'd told her he would but Nana C was up and she totally got that he wanted to chill with the woman he barely got to see and she was cool. Santana would totally just insert herself in there. "I will tell her about venereal diseases and other things if you push this."

"Alright, alright. But come on, one night, just one. I'll even clean up. Please?" She's being nice, which is never something you can pass up when it comes to Santana, so he caves.

"Fine, one night. You can come for dinner. No other swing bys." Of course conceding to that in the middle of glee means that before he knows it Britt and Quinn are coming too, and Blaine's never met his nana so he's invited and Kurt by default which means Mercedes and Sam come and then Artie and Tina and Mike and Rachel is of course invited because she knows his nana which means Finn's to come and before he knows it the entire glee club are invited to dinner with him, his sister and his nana.

"Sweet holy, you fiends just infest things. Yo, Schue, you wanna invite yourself too?" Thankfully, Mr. Schue doesn't invite himself, but Puck makes a point of getting Lauren to come over as well, even though she's not part of glee anymore.

#

Explaining to Nana Connie that _everyone_ wants to come and see her goes down pretty well. Since she starts making enough food to feed an army, Puck's pretty sure she's all for meeting his little 'glee family', even if she does already know most of them. They packed off Richard and their Dad that day following school, Richard leaving Puck the keys to the beamer and making him swear that there would be no repeats of the seven-eleven drama. Puck swears blind that he'll treat the car like his guitar, it's good enough for them.

San, Britt and Quinn roll in like the unholy trinity they once were and instantly turn on the cuteness. Puck gets to mess around with the dogs out in the back yard while the girls chat since the poor saps aren't getting walked until later. Fang is mostly okay with all the people in the house, but Mitzy is like attached to Puck's hip when they go back inside when the guys get there. It means he can't get anything done because he's constantly tripping over this massive chocolate lab that's right under his feet.

"Noah, sweetie, give that to Rachel, she knows what to do." So Rach helps out his nana while Puck stands in the corner with Mitzy and the guys all crowd around the table to listen to Nana Connie tell them about her bridge partner and his gambling habits and how she's about to go loan shark on his ass.

"You can't do that to Pedro, Nana." Puck could barely move from the corner, since Mitzy had pushed herself up on her hind legs to stand herself up against his chest, "You live together, that's like turning yourself in to the IRS."

"Oh, don't you get me started on them, bubbala." He gets a wooden spoon shaken in his face, Nana giving him one of those pointed looks. "Now, Santana," somehow, the woman always pronounced San's name with a Spanish accent and Puck never really questioned it. "Are you and my bubbala still,"

"No, Nana Connie," Puck was suddenly very interested in getting Mitzy something to eat, completely ignoring this conversation. Santana could explain why they weren't dating, and then hopefully explain why they were better that way. Honestly, Nana Connie might be the only person in the world who believed that him and Santana were good with each other. "We're just friends." Seriously, how the hell did he end up 'just friends' with so many chicks?

"Well, that's something, I suppose."

"Nana, don't start, don't start this whole thing like Ma." He just shakes his head, getting a screwed up face from Sarah while Nana Connie sighs slightly.

"Bubbala, you have to think about settling down, at least having a serious relationship with a nice girl, look at Rachel and Finn," he'd really like not to actually. Rachel ducked her head as his eyes just sort of darted towards her before flicking away. He wasn't exactly sure what to say about that, or how to derail the conversation.

"Noah's just enjoying the single life, Nana," weirdly, it's Quinn that interjects, "you know how it is, focusing on school and sport, he's better waiting until college to find the girl for him, it gives him time to get his head down in high school." There was definitely something a little odd about Quinn Fabray backing him up on something as weird as his love life with his nana. But then, she was more than aware that he sort of (more than sort of) had feelings for Rachel. Maybe it wasn't that weird.

"You kids decided on colleges yet?" It gives everyone a chance to tell his nana what their plans are for after high school, Tina, Artie and Blaine still have another year to go, but they all know exactly what they want to do too. Santana's all about law, surprisingly enough, and Britt sort of wants to do something involved in fashion or at least in the industry, Quinn's still set on her real estate life, Kurt hasn't decided between fashion designing or Broadway yet, Finn's hoping for a football scholarship somewhere, Mike just wants to dance, and Nana already knows about Rachel's Broadway dream. "Oh, you'll be absolutely wonderful dear, I can't wait until I get to take a little trip out to see you, shinning bright on that big stage." Rachel blushes slightly, moving towards the fridge and bumping Puck's shoulder slightly as she goes. Nana Connie had always been so sure of Rachel, even when Puck and her weren't friends, she'd do things like sending Puck stuff to give to Rachel or whatever.

With the Jewish community being so small in Lima, it wasn't like it was a surprise that Nana just ended up playing grandmother to a few of the other kids -she even did it with Jewfro. Puck just dealt with it at this stage.

He eventually coaxes Mitzy upstairs, shutting her up in his room to sleep for a while with Fang to give him a chance to help out with his nana. It turns it's a pretty okay afternoon, bleeding over into the evening when Sarah starts demanding that they sing some of their songs so that Nana Connie can hear them.

"Alright, amuse yourselves," Puck has to concede to the dogs just before dinner time, getting up from the living room where Blaine and Kurt were currently singing for Nana and Sarah, "I'm gonna walk Mitzy and Fang." He presses a kiss to his nana's cheek, not even bothered about who was around and what they thought. He figures a half hour walk with the dogs might help clear his mind a little.

"Can I come?" Rachel's already got her jacket on and holding Mitzy's leash in her hand (Rach is familiar enough that Mitzy is cool with her) and Puck figures he's not getting that space to clear his head at all. Nana's already pushing them out the door with the dogs, telling them it's _fine_. The labs are just happy to be out, and Puck and Rachel get as far as the park before they even exchange a word. "They're very lovely." Puck just nods, he knows that Rachel adores the dogs, Richard's been talking about breeding them maybe, and the possibility of little lab puppies just sent Rachel into this high pitched squeal fest when she heard.

"Yeah, sorry about earlier, Mitzy is just a fuss about people. Didn't mean to invite you over and then make you do all the work." Rachel just smiles and shakes her head.

"It's okay, you know I don't mind." Crazy thing is that she doesn't, weird chick.

They spend some time playing with the dogs, letting them run around a little bit. Fang is a total dork and runs after anything, even if you don't throw something, and it doesn't take long for the pair of them to be sniffing around trees and chasing each other. Rachel sort of snags his fingers in a light grip to lead him over to a bench, sitting down and then shuffling in closer to him. February is still a little cool, so he sort of figures that's why she leans in against him, so he's okay putting his arm around her shoulders to try and help her heat up.

"Finn and I broke up." This is the first he's heard of that, which is strange because he's decent friends with Kurt now and Kurt lives with Finn, so you'd think it might come up. "We haven't told anyone yet, but we both agreed. We aren't going to work out, there's no point in prolonging the agony." He's fairly certain this might have something to with whatever their Valentine's day plans were meant to be -–he's sure that Finn probably didn't think whatever his plan was through and highlighted the fact that they just weren't in it anymore. It sucks a little, because it is just two days before Valentine's, it'll be the second year in a row that Rachel's just been dumped or broken up with right before the day.

It gives him a bit of a problem. Because Rach is Finn's ex. She's also technically his ex, so like Finn shouldn't have dated her if they stick to 'bro-code' but Puck's pretty sure that 'bro-code' no longer applies when you get your best friend's girlfriend pregnant anyway. Not like he's going to make a move on Rach or anything, he shouldn't, right? Because she's his friend and if he fucked that up it'd suck. But he's kind of sure he's a little in love with her, maybe more than a little, which means just being friends sucks a little too.

"You could probably come out with us." He's not sure how this nonchalant approach could work, on one hand he feels a little shit about Rach being on her own another year, on the other, he still doesn't want to share his nana with anyone but Sarah. Rachel's different, yeah, and not just because he's into her, but because of how well she knows his nana, how well Nana C knows Rachel too.

"Oh, Noah, that's sweet, but I don't want to intrude on your plans." Puck just shakes his head a little, because it's not like they've got some intricate thing set out.

"Rach, we're going for dinner and then coming home to watch a movie. It's not like we've got a table booked or anything." The whole point was just to spend the weekend together, and then when Dad and Richard came back from their getaway, they'd go out as a family and have a night with the five of them, Nana wasn't going home until Thursday, it was only Friday, there was plenty of time. And Puck didn't exactly mind sharing his Nana with Rach. And yeah, it might partially be because of his feelings for her, but he doesn't exactly feel like analysing that, ever, and he's not telling her anyway, so why would it even matter?

"You really wouldn't mind?" Puck just shakes his head and smirks at her, because even when he did mind her being around, she was still always around. Why would he mind now?

#

It isn't surprising how easily the weekend goes; Nana C always has her organisational skills down to a T, which is probably why shit just works for her. Sarah's kinda thrilled when Rachel shows up at their house with three Valentine's roses, one for each of them and dog treats for Mitzy and Fang. Puck would be more worried about Sarah's near hero-worship of Rachel if Nana weren't the exact same. So they head out for dinner, Nana making comment on Puck's driving with every single turn that he takes, making Sarah grin and Rach just hide a smirk behind her hand, because usually, Puck would complain about the side-seat driving, but the hell is he saying anything like that to his nana.

Sarah gets to pick where they eat, which ends up being some little pasta place just past the mall. It's decent and quiet, so they get to eat in peace without the usual spotting everyone else stuff that would've happened at Breadstix or at the mall itself. Rachel and Sarah spend most of the night gushing about some comedy movie, which means that's the film they get to watch later and Puck's not really too fussed.

"So," he's in the kitchen at home, heating up some popcorn and getting soda for Rach and Sarah when Nana corners him, "Rachel's lovely."

"Oh, don't you start too." He's pretty sure he's had enough of people telling him things he already knows. Like how Rachel is really smart, she is, he knows that, she's also fairly funny and decidedly talented and Jewish is a bonus too. She's attractive and friendly and Sarah approves, and Richard approves, and Dad approves and Nana thinks she's a Goddess, but really, Puck _knows_ all this. She's his best friend, it's not like he can't see it.

"I'm just saying, you know, if you wanted to maybe see about finding that girl before college, there's one right there." Nana bumps his hip with hers, making his laugh slightly despite the situation. "And I think she might like you."

"She does, Nana, as a friend." He really hates that he has to stress this point repeatedly. "She's still technically Finn's girl, and she might always be Finn's girl and I'm not ruining two friendships just because everyone likes to point out how awesome Rachel is. I know, okay. She's brilliant, Sarah loves her, she actually gives a damn and Ma always had this crazy image in her head of me gettin' married to Rachel and poppin' out a bunch of Jewish grandbabies someday." And really, Puck's not overly adverse to it. He's not saying he's envisioning him and Rachel all shacked up in the big city, but yeah, he could see it, maybe. She's intense about everything, but she actually pushes him to push himself, she's loud and obnoxious, but she doesn't put up with his crap and calls him on bullshit when she sees it. And yeah, they only dated for a week, but he was pretty into her that week, and he wasn't exactly thinking on breaking up with her like he said, and for real, she made a plain white nightie look sexy. Why the hell wouldn't he want to hit that?

"Honey, that Finn boy is not the one for her, not at all." Nana petted a hand at the back of Puck's mohawk, pulling the strands at the end slightly and he knew she was trying to make a point, getting him to pay attention to her. "Mark my words, she'll spend her days unhappy with that boy. He's not like you, Noah, he's happy here."

It means Puck spends the rest of the night trying to figure out just what the hell he was meant to do. Because yeah, he was fairly certain him and Rach stood a pretty good chance of lasting out, she'd been pretty constant in his life since the start of year that he wasn't sure there was a side of her he hadn't seen, and vice versa. There was something about seeing the worst in people and still being able to care, right? But even if she was single, it didn't mean she was emotionally available. It didn't mean she was interested in him like that either.

But he watches the way she plays with Sarah, the way she makes his little sister feel important and special, and he knows how that works, because when she's honestly interested, Rachel just focuses every ounce of that intense craziness on one thing. Sarah loves that, genuinely. She's all about being noticed, she's always vying for someone to just listen to her and not treat her like a kid, and Rachel does that. It's the way Rach is always respectful and polite to Nana C too; she remembers all Nana's friends names, asks after Pedro, who Rachel knows is Nana's live in boyfriend, even if they are way too old for Puck to honestly consider them that. He prefers to call them co-habiting old people, thank you very much. And Rachel just glances over at him sometimes, she looks at him and there's just something there that makes him wonder, makes him think that maybe he needs to stop talking himself out of things and just go for it. But something holds him back; maybe it's Finn, maybe it's Rachel, maybe it's himself, but there's just this _thing_ that tells him, just maybe, things are better this way. What if he's reading it wrong? What if she's still waiting for Finn to realise he's missing the best thing in his life? What if he ruins everything?

He'd rather have her as just a friend than lose her completely. Even if it does hurt like hell.

#

Turns out that competition for Regionals includes Vocal Adrenaline this year. It sends Rachel into a twirl, she's all about practice and rehearsal and anytime Schue even suggests taking a break from practising their numbers to do a 'weekly assignment', Rachel gets this homicidal glint in her eyes that both scares the hell out of Puck and turns him the fuck on. He's moderately worried at these times, but it's just another aspect of Rachel's crazy intensity that he totally digs. They're doing another round of auditions for a solo at Regionals, but this time it's the club that's going to judge things, but they all know that they're doing 'Take Me or Leave Me' for their duet, and Mercedes and Rachel have it down pat. There's minimal choreography to learn for it, mostly it's Mercedes and Rachel twirling around and partially acting on stage while the rest of them work out a routine in the back, and it's actually kind of fun because Britt totally told Mr Schue that this was her gig and he had to deal.

They do the auditions in the auditorium one afternoon, just all of them sitting in the seats while the others belt out a song. Mercedes does a Mariah number and Puck will forever deny knowing it, Kurt does Celine, and is fucking amazing, Rachel pulls her Babs, which is really great, there's no denying it, but Puck's pretty sure that Kurt's is a little better than hers just for effect. At least until Santana comes on. And he's pretty sure that Finn and Sam are squirming in their seats a little.

"Holy smokes, she's found her stiffy song." Quinn snorts beside him but doesn't argue. For real, if they do that at Regionals there's no way the guys in the audience aren't going to be at half-mast before she's reached the end of the first verse. Puck's not sure what Blaine sings, he's still too caught up in Santana's smoky voice and that awesome version of 'I Put a Spell on You' and he's pretty sure the guys are too. He's not even sure _where_ Brittany is, but there's a good chance that she's wherever Santana is and she's getting rid of the tension that Sam and Finn are feeling right then.

They wait for everyone to get themselves back together and the singers come back to the stage, sitting on the edge while the others huddle around.

"So, what does everyone think?" Mr Schue looks enthusiastic and Puck's not sure if it's because he's not the one having to make this decision or if it's because the songs blew him away or if it's just because Miss P finally put out or whatever. Britt is the only one on the stage who didn't sing a solo, but there's no one who's about to tell her off from the way Santana's arm is around her waist in the possessive way.

"I think everyone was great," Rachel interjects almost immediately, and Puck can see the others gearing up for her argument on why she should do the solo, "but Kurt, you were amazing and I honestly think you did the best." Kurt blushes, like actually blushes and Puck just word vomits without stopping himself.

"I think Santana should do it." So, he's not exactly mister opinion in glee, he's aware, and usually his input is of the less than useful sort. But he can see the surprise on Santana's face, and the shock on Kurt and Rachel's while Mercedes and Blaine just, sort of, stare at him. And yeah, maybe Kurt and Rachel and Blaine are closer to 'friends' with him than Santana is right now -him and Santana, they're like bros, only she's a chick, and they used to have sex a lot. But whatever. "Um, was anyone else in the room when she sang? Because, for real, open with that and they'll be completely blown away." There's no way Vocal Adrenaline could smack something out as good as that, none at all.

"Puck's got a point," Quinn just smirks and it's pretty clear that the others think hell just froze over. "Yes, everyone was great, we know that everyone is great, but we want something that Vocal Adrenaline _cannot_ reproduce themselves. That's it." There were nods from Tina and Mike, Sam and Finn still shifting somewhat uncomfortably while Brittany beamed at Santana. "Nothing Vocal Adrenaline do will come close to that."

So it's pretty much agreed that Santana is going to seduce everyone at Regionals with her sex voice and then they'll do the Liz Phair song that Kurt literally squeals about in excitement and then Rachel and Mercedes are going to get their RENT on. It's the first time they've had a set list nailed down early enough that they can work on it constantly without Schue throwing something else in the works. But legit, Puck's sure Rachel would _kill_ him if he suggested it.

"Was Santana better than me?" He's a little surprised by the question really, driving her home because her exhaust bust and Richard was cool with him taking the Camry for school and shit. "I mean, you and Quinn both thought she was the best."

"It's not that she was _better_ , Rach, it's just different. You and Kurt and 'Cedes, you can belt out those show tunes like no one else, and Blaine's pretty good at those upbeat pop things, but Tana," Puck shakes his head, because he's never heard Santana pull off show tune and she hates pop, but the girl is a fucking fire cracker with a jazz number, "she kills that smoky, scratchy voice stuff. Seriously, those douchebags aren't gonna know what hit them when Santana hits that out the park at Regionals."

"Mr. Schue wants her to open." He's not sure where this is coming from, because she was all about nailing Vocal Adrenaline to the wall, no matter the course they took. He gets that she's still occasionally insecure, but it's never about her talent, she's never been in the least bit insecure about her voice. And this year, it totally feels like the club is way better held together, like they actually mesh better. Rachel should know that they appreciate her talent now, between her friendship with Kurt and Blaine, her not so vicious feud with Mercedes which actually turned out to be more of a bonding than anything else, he figured she'd get it now, that they did like her, they need know they needed her.

"Yeah, and you and 'Cedes are closing. What's up, Rach?" He pulls up to the curb beside her house, parking the car and killing the engine so she knows he's not going to let her jump out and just ignore the conversation. He kind of hates when she gets all down on herself and stuff. She's fiddling with the hem of her skirt, knees pressing together as she purses her lips, clearly warring with herself on telling him what's really bothering her. "Look, it's tactics, okay? Quinn and me, we know game play, football and cheerleading, it's about being better than the others," although Puck wasn't a hundred percent sure cheerleading counted when Sue was like a military strategist or something, "and this is just good game play. Santana has them eating out the palm of her hand to start, we blow them away with the ensemble and then you and Mercedes leave the lasting impression with the duet. We're gonna win this thing like this."

"I'm not sexy like her." She just blurts it out and now he's starting to worry if this girl even looks at herself in the mirror.

"What?"

"Santana, I don't have that sex appeal. Everyone always wants to see that, even on Broadway." Rachel is possibly the only person who doesn't know she's gorgeous. That and blind monks.

"Rachel, you're sexy. Not in the same way as Santana, maybe, I mean," Puck sighs, hating that this is the conversation he has to have _with_ Rachel. "Santana's overtly sexual, right?" That was definitely the phrase she'd used once upon a time, 'overtly sexual', she'd called him that before the crash and stuff, when he was banging every girl in school or whatever. He figures it applies to San as well. "She's right out there with her body and that's cool, for her." It wasn't like Puck hadn't taken notice of it. "But you, jeez, Rach, you're sexy in this subtle kind of way. Like when you bite your lips, or run your hand through your hair." She can do the most basic of things and he's caught himself watching her with a stutter of breath in his chest. That just how fucking hot she is. "Your legs are amazing and your skin is pretty flawless. And you know for a fact that you can get anything you want just by batting your eyes, I've seen you do it." She's done it to her daddy with the big Bambi eyes and gotten the extra two days onto a Streisand marathon, she's done it to Schue to stop the nonsense attempt at bonding them with the football team this year, she pulled it on Finn one time at the mall, and Finn had to excuse himself to the bathroom because the guy popped a boner the second she started nibbling her lip -she can go from cute, innocent little thing to sultry, dark eyed vixen with one move and how does she not know that's sexy?

"You...you really think I'm sexy?" He thinks she's just about everything that means perfect and that is the biggest problem in his life right then. He's doing good at school, he's got a fairly great spot on the baseball team, he's pretty sure the glee club is solid this year for Nationals, home is pretty much stress free, and he's not freaking out over probation rules or community service or an upcoming baby. His life pretty much settled. Apart from the fact that he's ass over elbow for this girl.

"Rach," he doesn't even want to play it off, make some lewd comment that would convince her he thought she was sexy and they'd move on, because they both know that he's not exactly picky about looks. "You're one of the hottest girls I've ever known. Probably seen. And it's not just your looks, okay? Santana can't fake a warm heart, she can't fake listening and caring, she can't fake adoring little puppies and small children. She doesn't care the way you care, and that just makes you sexier." The only person Santana can _truly_ care about looks to be Britt. And that's cool and stuff, for Santana. But Rachel wasn't like that, and Puck sort of dug the way that she cared so damn much now. She wasn't little miss self-involved like she'd been at the start of glee, and he figured that was because she actually had friends now.

"Noah," she glances at him, almost shyly and fuck, even that's hot, before pushing some hair behind her ear and nodding, "thank you." He's not sure why he's being thanked, but whatever, if she feels better he can cope with having to say all the mushy shit he really didn't want to have to say. She leans over to kiss his cheek before climbing out of the car and Puck just sits there, skin tingling lightly until she turns back to him. "You and Sarah are still coming over for taco night, right?"

"Yeah, wouldn't miss it." Taco night is just because her dads are going out of town and Rachel hates spending the whole night in the house by herself, so him and Sarah agreed to a 'dinner and random movies after' night, just to keep her company, even though she was more than welcome to spend a night at their house. "Need me to pick you up tomorrow for school?"

"If you don't mind." Like he ever minds anything for this girl.

"No worries, I'll see you at half seven." He waits until she's pranced up her driveway, turning back to wave to him as she sticks her key in the lock and pushes the door open, before he drives off. He's so totally whipped for this girl and she doesn't even know it.

#

Taco night turns into just him and Rachel though. Sarah comes down with some tummy bug or something, probably the food she had at school because she was enthusiastic that morning when they'd picked up Rachel before dropping Sarah at school. But by the time Puck gets in from baseball practice, Sarah's curled on the sofa watching SpongeBob and trailing her fingers over Fang's back where he lies on the floor in front of her. He just gives her hair a small ruffle, promising to bring back sugar cookies for her and tell Rachel she's sorry. In his mind, it's not a huge deal, just him going to Rach's house. Yeah, he gets that his sister and Rachel are pretty good friends, Rachel is what Sarah aspires to be -only less talkative and with a badass streak to match her brothers, so he figures it'll just mean a night when he drops Sarah over at Rachel's when she's feeling better so she can feel like she didn't miss out.

When he explains it to Rachel, she's nothing but understanding; she's already got a pot of chicken soup started and the tupperware box ready for Sarah's share of the cookies before the tacos are even finished. It's way cool that, even though she's a vegan, she still provides meat for him. Quinn had her vegetarian stage in freshman year, making Finn cut out meat to support her, which meant that Puck had to stop eating meat at lunch, and Santana and Britt had to join in too. It ended after two months, and honestly, Puck wasn't sure if he was closer to killing Quinn or if Santana was. While she cooks, she keeps up this running commentary that he's already more than used to, it stopped being 'annoying' ages ago, now it's just kinda adorable how she can go on and on about everything and nothing.

Conversation with Rachel is still shockingly easy. He found that out when he first dated her; they could talk, she wasn't all show-tunes and Broadway stars, it didn't make his head _hurt_ just to listen to her. She liked animated movies, not just the ones with songs in them, although nothing could beat vintage Disney and Puck had found he didn't mind admitting that he watched that stuff with Sarah. Rachel didn't really talk about sports, and that was fine with Puck, he got enough of that talk with the guys at school, so just shooting the breeze about music, animation and shitty YouTube videos was fine with him. And the making out, he _really_ liked that. Being just friends with Rachel isn't too different; they talk about music and animation and shitty YouTube videos, go out to the mall with Blaine and Kurt sometimes, hang out at her place or his place, walk the dogs and he's working on playing guitar again, so he does that with her too. He just doesn't get to make out with her while they're just friends.

Platonic relationships are kind of weird.

Weird because he's totally at ease with Rachel, and he's pretty sure she is too, more so than she ever really was with Finn, that he saw. With Finn he'd always sort of believed that Rachel was putting up some kind of front, like she was still acting through the relationship. She wasn't exactly tense, but she never really just _let go_ and just be. But he's noticed that she does that fine with him, or with Kurt and Blaine. So it's like comfortable, but weird that she trusts them that much, but not her boyfriend. He still needs to remind himself that they've broken up, since she's just carefully placed in this section of his brain with 'Finn's Girl' just to stop himself from repeating sophomore year all over again. It carries over past dinner, past the tacos and conversation that is just so fluid he can't even remember what they started talking about, it carries over into curling up on her sofa, DVDs littering the room and the television lit up with the starting sequence of Shrek; because that's what she wants right now, all those 'happily ever after' stories. He's got an arm around the back of her shoulders, resting on the back of the sofa while she's curling in against his side, legs drawn up under herself and a blanket thrown over their laps. It's that comfortable way again, where he's completely relaxed and at peace. There's no need to talk through the movie other than to laugh at the jokes, or when she half sings along with the music. They work their way through the whole Shrek franchise, because Rachel has a weird affinity for Eddie Murphy and Antonio Banderas singing, and she likes the idea of perfect happiness not meaning being the beautiful princess, but what other people see as different.

Puck thinks she might be relating a bit too much to an animated film about ogres, but there's no telling her that.

Rachel falls asleep against his shoulder somewhere between Shrek trying to fix the world and the credit roll in the fourth movie; her head is pillowed on his shoulder, her arm wrapped around his waist and her legs pressing against his thigh and hip. Puck's found that Rachel can't actually sleep with people in her company unless she's relaxed. There was one time they did a glee-sleepover at Brittany's house, with everyone, and Rachel had twitched the whole night because she wasn't entirely sure about being defenceless in a room with Quinn and Santana at the time. Puck couldn't really blame her.

He tries to focus on the end of the film, to at least watch that rather than watch _her_ but she just snuggles into his chest and Puck finds it too hard not to run his hand over the bare patch of skin on her shoulder, drawing little patterns and just smirking at how utterly adorable she is. For all that she complains about her nose, Puck's not sure he sees what she's on about. The way she looks so peaceful, with her full lashes resting against her cheeks, her lips just slightly parted, her nose is kind of perfect on her face. Then again, he finds it hard to really find anything at fault with her, appearance wise more than anything probably, so maybe it's just him. When she starts to stir, he realises that he's been staring at her like some creeper while the DVD menu played in the background.

"Noah," she shifts against him, not sitting up but half burrowing against him further, like she could actually get closer and Puck just smirks at her. "I fell asleep?"

"Yeah, you missed Shrek saving the day." Granted it was fairly late, the lights on the deck were on, the timer flicking them on sometime after nine, the neighbour's houses being mostly in dark from what Puck could see out the sliding door to the patio.

"I'm so sorry; I'm the worst hostess ever." Rach shifted again, pushing herself up slightly but still not pulling completely away from Puck's side. Her arm rested over his lap, her legs slipping down to the side of the sofa while her shoulder rested against his side, just nestled along his underarm.

"It's okay," he joked, aiming for teasing to keep things from getting too awkward, "you kept me warm." The blush was obvious on her cheeks, even as she laughed at him and ducked her head in against his chest.

"Shush you, you could've woken me." They both knew he wouldn't have done that, but Puck wasn't sure how long he would've just sat there and let her sleep either. Which totally wasn't a stalker move, for real he couldn't actually figure out if he could get more pathetic or not. "It's late." Puck just nodded at Rachel's observation, glancing over at the glass doors again, probably after midnight considering how many movies they'd gotten through. "You um, you probably should head home, right?"

"Yeah, probably." His dad knew where he was, they didn't really have a curfew so long as they knew where he was, although Richard preferred him home before midnight on a school night. It was kind of cool that they just took his word for where he was though; not calling parents to check on him or anything like that. He's not making any move to leave though, and he really should, but Rachel's just sort of staring at him now and he figures it's past time to head out. "Want me to help clean up before I go?"

"No, that's okay, I've got it." They'd already cleared out the kitchen from the tacos, so it was just the DVDs lying around on the table and their glasses in the living room to clean up, and Rachel was a little anal about her hosting abilities that even Puck didn't want to piss her off by doing too much for her liking. Rach was the one moving from the sofa finally, and Puck shook himself into getting up too, getting his boots from the hall and pushing his feet into them. He could hear Rach shifting about in the kitchen, putting the glasses in the sink before venturing into the hall.

"So, see ya on Monday?" They had one more week until Regionals, all week was set to be rehearsals with the club after school, so the whole group had agreed to have this last weekend to themselves to avoid tensions getting high due to constant contact. Puck was pretty sure it was just so that Santana didn't stab Finn in the eye and so that Brittany could get her weird out this weekend.

"Yes, have a nice weekend," Rach moved in for a hug and Puck turned into it, perfectly comfortable with the hugging nature of half of the glee club at this point. Rach turned her head just as Puck was about to place a perfectly innocent kiss to her cheek, missing her cheek and catching her bottom lip softly.

The thing about kissing Rachel was that he never really forgot it, not really. From the time they spent dating, the brief moments just before winter break last year, he'd always sort of remember the feeling of kissing her. It wasn't like she kissed differently from anyone else –except Josie Walker, but she usually tried to eat people's faces rather than make out like any normal person. But it was the little things really that stuck out; like the fullness of her lower lip, the softness of her lips, that little bite thing she did that was definitely awesome. There was around about a half second where Rachel leaned up towards him, her lips parting slightly as Puck pressed closer before she pulled back, blinking owlishly at him and Puck realised exactly what had happened.

"Um, sorry, I—" running a hand over the top of his mohawk, he just watched her raise an eyebrow and touch her fingers to her lips. Shit, he was seriously going to fuck things up there. "I'll see you Monday." He repeated, opening the door and leaving before she could say anything. He shut the door behind him, heading to the Camry quickly to avoid Rachel coming out and asking to 'talk about it' or something like that. He really didn't need to listen to her telling him why they should stay friends and nothing more. Knowing he didn't have a chance wasn't as bad as listening to her tell him why. It would be easier to just let her ignore it and not bring it up.

They could put it down to an accident anyway; she was still a little tired from waking up, they were a little off balance from having been on the sofa for so long, it was totally just an accidental contact thing.

He really needs to work on lying to himself.

#

The difficulty with deciding something and doing something is that part in between, the part where he actually _does_ it. Puck manages to convince himself that it's not a big deal and Rachel probably won't even mention it anyway, it was just a stupid little peck, totally chaste and innocent considering what they'd done already. But telling himself it didn't matter and believing that, at least on his end, it was just stupid to expect it to be possible. He'd gotten home just after two in the morning and Richard just smiled at him, this weird sort of expectant look on his face as he asked how the tacos went.

Puck had pulled enough double entendre in his life that he knew the tone Richard used, spurning him to roll his eyes as he grabbed a bottle of water and explained that tacos were fine and they watched the Shrek movies, that _nothing_ went on and then he headed to bed.

And there was nothing, at all, all weekend. No text message, no Facebook message, no calls. Just radio silence from everyone and yeah, it was nice, kinda. He actually wouldn't have minded Kurt and Blaine talking him into frozen yoghurt and a movie, he would've been okay with a Call of Duty campaign with Artie, Sam and Mike, if Quinn just happened to show up, he'd be okay with that too. But the whole weekend, they maintain the distance like they agreed and Puck spends his time doing homework, playing with the dogs and teaching Sarah how to make mac and cheese.

It was one of the tamest weekends he'd had in his life, but somehow it managed to exhaust him.

He woke up on Monday feeling like he hadn't slept all week, which was just ridiculous. The looks he got from his dad and Richard definitely didn't help because he was starting to think that they had some kind of freaking telepathy thing going and knew exactly what was on his mind. He wasn't stupid, he'd figured out from the comments that his dad liked Rachel just as much as his ma had liked her, maybe a little more. The fact that their families were oddly mirroring in certain aspects was a little disconcerting, but it was like osmosis or something, the way Dad and Richard just knew stuff that Hiram and Leroy knew. At the very least they knew something was up, and probably that it had to do with Rachel, he could do without parents that actually had the time to watch and see what the hell was going on in his life really. It was cool, yeah, but times like these, it just drained him even more to try and avoid those conversations.

Thankfully, for him at least, Rach had a lift to school that wasn't him. Hiram was dropping her off, and since they were all doing the after school rehearsals with the club they'd all ended up car-pooling. It meant he'd normally be driving her home, but today she was going to the mall with the girls to get their nails done –don't ask him why, he still doesn't get it, Quinn spent fifteen minutes explaining why it was important for the performance and he'd just commented that the judges weren't going to be close enough to see their nails and it wasn't where they were meant to be watching anyway, was it?

It still gives him a day to pull himself together while being around her and work out what he needs to say if he needs to say anything and just how to make sure she doesn't see that he's lying through his teeth when he agrees that it didn't mean anything.

"Are you ill?" Santana just blurts it out while they're sitting in Chem, her usual partner for the class being off and his having some horrible accident with a power tool first period meaning they were paired up for the day.

"What? No. Why?" He's pretty sure he doesn't look _that_ bad; for Santana to notice and comment, he'd need to be at deaths door. For her to really care, he'd need to be secure in the coffin and six feet under.

"You've barely said a word all class, all your working out is right and thunder-thighs there just flashed you," Santana nods her head towards Yvonne, one of the Cheerio's, and Puck catches her glancing at him before ducking her head, "you didn't even notice. So spill, what gives? If this is you coming down with some prolonged brain fever that started with you and Quinn agreeing on something, just tell me if it's contagious so I can get immunised before Regionals."

"San," he just rolls his eyes, rubbing at his temple in a bid to stave off the headache that's starting to build already, "it's fine, okay. It was just…it was a rough weekend." Not that it was at all.

"Christ, you didn't sleep with Quinn, did you? Or have you fallen out with Rachel? Sarah in some kind of trouble? I mean, your dads are fine, I know that because Britt and I saw them when they dropped the squirt at school." Puck didn't know which part of that to focus on first, despite the fact that he was sure she almost sounded concerned.

"Okay, I'm gonna ask you now, are you ill? 'Cause, seriously? Do you hear yourself?" Him and Quinn were friends, sure, but they'd never really given off the 'ready to hook up' vibe. And they weren't, because they both knew that they were better as friends. Him and Rachel having a fight shouldn't have even popped into Santana's head, although it was possible that the Latina had noticed that Rach was practically his best friend now in lieu of Finn. "Sarah's fine, no I didn't sleep with Quinn and no, Rach and I aren't fighting."

"Those are seriously the only things that would cause this space case thing to be happening, okay. So c'mon, what's up?" The teacher isn't paying any attention to anything that's going on, just sitting at the desk at the front and scribbling whatever it was that teachers scribbled. Technically, he could just tell Santana, he wouldn't have before, like last year before, or even the year before that, because she was still a grade A bitch, even when they were fucking.

But she's like, mellow or whatever just now, and Puck's pretty sure it's to do with the solo at Regionals, Quinn Fabray saying Santana was the best at something and Brittany being her not-so-secret girlfriend. He can't say for sure, she might just be self-medicating like he'd told her to do in freshman year, but it's a safe bet on the former –at the very least, about the Brittany thing for sure.

"I kissed Rachel on Friday night." She stares at him, one eyebrow raised and Puck can sort of see Yvonne in his peripheral vision, like she's trying to catch his attention while he's mostly just watching Santana's expression.

"What happened? I mean, did she—" she makes some kind of motion that Puck doesn't understand, it's definitely nothing sexual, because those ones he does know and it's not like Rachel would do any of that shit anyway, but he just frowns at her.

"Nothing happened; we had tacos, watched movies, she fell asleep and when she woke up I went home. But like, we hugged, and I went for the cheek but she moved and…" He gives a shrug, because that's exactly what happened and there's really nothing else to read into that, is there? But Santana gets that weird eye motion thing, like she's having a conversation in her head, or playing it out in her head and watching it or something.

"So, it was just like a brush of lips?" Puck shook his head, 'cause it was more than that.

"No, it was a kiss. Without the swapping of saliva though." Her nose crinkles in that way where she acts like he's grossing her out, but it's all just a show.

"What did she say?"

"Nothing," he shrugs one shoulder, moderately confused as to why Santana cares so much, because this is very new, "I left just after."

"Seriously? You just left? Just kissed her and left?"

"What was I supposed to do? I mean, it was an accidental kiss, and I think I surprised her enough with that from the deer-in-the-headlights look I got from her. You think I should've stuck around and blurted my way through an apology?" Santana knows how very not good he is with talking about things. He just grunts or mumbles his way through 'meaningful' conversation. Not that he's had many of those with Santana, although there was one rather eventful time where that had happened shortly after the truth came out about Quinn and his baby.

"Okay, so probably not a good idea, but what about later? I mean, you guys must've hung out since. You guys _always_ hang out. You're like Miss Piggy and Kermit, Sonny and Cher, Hansel and Gretel. Only not because that would be gross." He's completely lost at this point and regretting telling her anything at all. But they've got ten more minutes of Chem, nothing to do and it's not like he's even thinking about finding out just what it is Yvonne's wanting.

"No. We agreed not to hang out this weekend."

"You think that stopped me from getting my mack on anyway?" It's the closest Santana has come to all out admitting that she's with Brittany right there, and Puck feels half proud of her.

"It's Rach, she's a stickler for the rules."

"God," her elbows drop to the table, her head falling down as her hands wrap around the base of her ponytail and she practically talks to the table. "You guys are exhausting." He really doesn't get much more out of her, least of all on what the hell she means. But at least he's not the only one completely drained right then.

#

They work on the choreography for 'Put a Spell On You' that day, which means he's sort of not really around Rachel at all. He gets paired with Tina on this one, which isn't all that common, but it works out okay. She doesn't ask him questions, doesn't prod for answers and just accepts if he says he's fine. And he is, he's completely himself when it comes to glee, except for those quick glances at Rachel to make sure she's not freaked out or anything and the almost conversation without words he manages to have with Santana –it's all head movements and frowns and glares and her trying to murder him with a scowl.

No one seems to notice it though, and if they do, nobody says anything. At least not to him.

It's much later, after dinner when he's playing Call of Duty with Sam because he's actually fed up with Artie kicking his ass at Madden. Once or twice was fine, but five times in a row was just humiliating. Puck's mostly ignoring his cell phone while he plays, although he's aware of the three waiting text messages since he heard the alerts. When Sam signs off for the night, Puck follows suit and gets up to check his phone, noticing that all three messages were from Kurt.

_What's the deal with you & Rach? You guys disagree over country music again?_

So, maybe some people had noticed, but Kurt was fairly good at picking up when things we off, with any of them really. But he seemed to think that Puck and Rachel genuinely had those arguments about music; they had rather in depth conversations, yes, usually Rachel got very heated about them, but Rachel got heated about _everything_ to do about music, not just when Puck disagreed just to wind her up.

_Okay, seriously, why is Rachel acting so weird? I asked her what was wrong and she started rambling about the future. What's going on?_

With Rachel, it's easy to figure out when she's really nervous. For one thing, she blushes like a champ. It's cute, most of the time, the way her cheeks flush red and her mouth opens and shuts like she's actually at a loss for words –and that almost never happens. But once she gets over than initial surprise of the moment, her mouth just starts going and the words seldom link up or make any sense and she can wind up talking about absolutely anything; Barbara, the future, Broadway, why ducks are just a little bit evil, the fact that her Prius is totally better than his borrowed Camry, why Kurt has too many scarves, anything at all. Blaine and Puck think it's kind of funny, Kurt gets freaked out when she doesn't stop to breath for almost two hundred and seventy six words. Yeah, he counted one time.

_Whatever you did. Fix. It. I mean it, this is not going to do us any favours. Sort it Puckerman._

The fact that Kurt last named him in a text message pretty much tells Puck right then that he's totally screwed. For Kurt to pull the last name, it has to be super serious, like biting nails serious. It means that Puck's going to have to talk to Rachel, try and defuse things as well as possible in the given time and with his lacklustre meaning. He's sort of hoping that she'll be keyed up enough about Regionals that she won't be able to tell he's lying, she's annoyingly good at calling him on that though, so it's only a tiny little bit of hope that the stress and excitement and craziness of the week gets him off the hook, at least until it's over and he can put a little more feeling or conviction into a lie.

Why did his life need to get _this_ complicated?

#

Preparing himself for a Rachel Berry confrontation, especially when he knows he's going to lie, is a difficult thing. It takes a bit of doing, but he definitely needs to make sure that nothing goes horrifically wrong during the day to piss her off, wind her up, upset her at all or make it that she thinks he's up to something. It means he can't flat out make a point of easing her day, not obviously, but he can't be seen to be scheming to make it that way either.

It works okay with the slushies being a thing of the past and Quinn kind of running interference, which honestly makes Puck wonder if Quinn was talking to Santana and that _worries_ him. But it clicks, just after lunch, that Quinn isn't running interference for him, she's running it for Rachel.

She's avoiding him.

Which hurts, he's not going to lie. He sits through his maths class, barely paying attention, ignoring Blaine's subtle questioning and frowning. Because if Rachel is actively avoiding him, which it seems she is, then there has to be something wrong. Not one of those imagined 'something is going on here' but a proper, serious 'I might've fucked everything up' wrong. Rachel would avoid him for two reasons; she thinks he was trying to get into her pants and she's pissed at him, or she's figured out that he meant the kiss and she's trying not to hurt him by flat out having to reject him and thus turning to avoidance. He's a little pissed off that his rational voice in his head sounds like Rachel.

He's pretty sure it's the latter of the two when Quinn tells him during glee rehearsal that Rachel is going to her house after school to hang out so he doesn't need to drive her home. Mercedes and Rachel are working on their own choreography for 'Take Me or Leave Me' while they hammer down the step work for Santana's solo before they move on to drilling the group number down over the next few days. Tina actually asks him if everything is okay that day, which makes him wonder just what Kurt and Blaine, even Rachel, might've noticed. He brushes it off with a smile and a nod and they just work the routine until they've all got it nailed to perfection. Even Finn's managing his feet right with the directing of Mike and Sam.

By the time Thursday comes around and they've progressed the exact same both days, Puck realises that he hasn't said even two words to Rachel since Friday night. It's a little agonising, because they've never actually gone this long without talking since he got out of juvie. And she'd still written him letters –seriously, she'd mailed him letters on scented paper while he was in juvie, he was only there for three weeks and she managed to send him four letters. But she's either surrounded by girls, sitting with the guys or just vanishes any time it looks like he might get a chance to talk to her, and that's a little harsh in his opinion.

It's not like he actually meant to kiss her, so it shouldn't be a huge deal. He went for the cheek, she moved her head. He'd kissed her cheek a million times by then because that was what Rachel Berry thought was an acceptable goodbye after a night of company. So why the hell was she being so weird about it? He couldn't even talk to Kurt or Blaine about it, because Puck was sure that Kurt already knew more than Puck was entirely comfortable with and Blaine was probably the same. And Quinn was avoiding him just as much, she'd become attached to Rachel or something and Puck would call her a traitor if it wasn't for the fact that Rachel had always wanted them to hang out more and actually act like friends. So at least someone got something out of this.

He was sulking at home when Sarah called him on his bad mood. And he was fine with admitting that it was sulking, because that's what he was doing. He'd spent the rest of the afternoon in the den at the back of the house, playing Sarah's PlayStation just for something to do that didn't involve his glee club friends. The fact that he wound up playing Guitar Hero was just a coincidence.

"What crawled up your butt and died?" Sarah and Mitzy just sort of invaded the space, Fang already sleeping by the far wall and Puck didn't even look away from the screen. He gave Sarah a mild shrug, only shifting his shoulder slightly when she climbed up on the sofa he was leaning against while sitting on the floor. "You've been moping around like Finn killed our dogs all week. What the heck is up with you?"

Sometimes, Sarah gets this way where it's hard to remember that she's nine and not older. It's a bit of a bitch because he's not all that keen on her growing up too fast, and right then anything faster than a turtle is too fast.

"It's nothing okay, just leave it." He's aware that it's more than nothing and Sarah can figure that out too. He's pretty hopeful that she's not smart enough to figure out when the off mood started and work out that it had anything to do with Rachel, because Sarah is likely to _tell_ Rachel that he's in a mood or something and that'll just make shit even more awkward.

"Is this because of what happened with you and Rachel?" Okay, maybe she will figure it out. Quicker than Puck would've thought she could too.

"What about me and Rachel?"

"On Friday, something happened didn't it? Are you two gonna date now?" Puck quit the song he was in the middle of, putting the guitar controller down and turning to face Sarah, frowning at her.

"What are you talking about?"

"Okay, so, I don't want to brag," lie, she totally wants to brag, that's why she's bringing it up, "but I sorta had a plan. See, on Friday, I wasn't really sick, I just said I was so that you'd go over and hang out with Rachel alone, even though I really wanted to come. Because if you guys hung out, I knew you'd like cuddle on the sofa like you do here when I go to bed and Rach stays to watch One Tree Hill on the television with you." She's paid way more attention than he knew, and the fact that she was sly enough, and that she gave up a Rachel Berry taco night, just informs Puck how serious she was about this. "So, it worked, right? I mean, you and Rachel totally figured it out right?"

"No," if people could stop meddling in his life he's pretty sure he might be able to get over Rachel. Having everyone point out how great she was and how fun and smart and pretty she was, it didn't help at all. Because he knew all this stuff and he was trying not to screw up the best friendship he'd ever had. "We're not dating, we're not talking. Seriously, Sarah, you need to stop with this Rachel thing, okay. I am just her friend."

" _Seriously_? You didn't ask her out or anything?" There's a look that Quinn has, this half arched eyebrow and off-center kind of glare at the same time while her lips thin and the displeasure is just written all over her face; well his little sister is wearing an almost replica of that same face and it's a little freaky. "Do you just wanna be her friend? 'Cause if you do you're so stupid, Rach is like the most awesome girl around."

"Yeah, I know. I figured that one out by myself, thanks." Except Quinn sort of pointed out that he knew it, which is where the whole mess started, it had to be. "But it doesn't matter what I think, 'cause Rachel just wants to be friends, so we're just friends." He moves to stand up, already done with the conversation because he does not need to explain to his nine-year-old sister all the reasons why Rachel is better off anyway.

"No she doesn't." He's half-way out of the room when Sarah says it, twisting on the sofa to stare at him. "Rach is totally into you. She keeps watching you when you're not looking and she comes over all the time, even just to sit around and do nothing. She's even listened to you talk about really stupid boring stuff and not said a word. She lied when she said she didn't know anything about playing guitar, cause I know she can play the chords, she just wanted you to teach her. You're like the Lucas to her Peyton. Or the Chandler to her Monica. Or the Marshall to her Lily."

"Okay, enough with the television references or I'm totally telling Dad you're watching crap again." At least it's not those stupid teen-Disney things. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Guys are so dumb," here's hoping she thinks that until she's twenty. "Rachel likes you. She _likes_ you likes you."

"Then why the hell isn't she talking to me?"

"Well what did you do?"

"Nothing. Well, I kissed her. Accidentally. Then went home."

"You are such an idiot." He's starting to get that. "Okay, so, you kissed her, but didn't say anything and now she's not talking to you. That means you need to apologise. Like actually tell her why you didn't say anything. And also, you should tell her how you feel. 'Cause girls like to hear that."

"God, why does it always have to be feelings?" It's not that he's embarrassed, not really. He's probably been half in love with Rachel for a while and then just went the rest of the way when he really got to know her. And yeah, he's accepted that. He's in love with Rachel Berry and it's fairly difficult but sort of okay too. It'd be awesome if he was actually with her when he figured out he was in love with her, but he rarely does things the easy way.

"Because, it's Rachel, and if she thinks you didn't mean it then she'll avoid you so that she can build up the walls and tell you it's okay, even though it's not. It's why you were avoiding her too, wasn't it? So you gotta tell her, like straight up just tell her." Sarah jumps from the sofa, something she's been told numerous times not to do but still does it anyway. "What are you anyway, a man or a mouse?" She gives his hip a little fist bump, Mitzy trailing from the den after Sarah and Fang's head popping up to stare at him accusingly.

"Hey, don't you start too." Puck would just like one or two days of normalcy, that's not too much to ask is it?

#

The interference from the others carries on all the way through to Regionals. Kurt's not amused that they're going to the competition with Rachel avoiding even looking at Puck and Puck walking around like there's a thundercloud over his head, but Puck points out that it's not his fault the girls conspired to never give him a minute to get things sorted. He can't do it right then either, even though he'd finally manage to get her alone for five seconds, but he doesn't want this to be a timed rush because they have a stage call and he sure as hell doesn't want her being overly emotional or him being messed up right before the competition, because if they lose she'd kill him.

Vocal Adrenaline are as great as always; they pull out their usual cheerful solo song, something to showcase the talents of their one lead singer and yeah, Sunshine is pretty amazing or whatever, but Santana has their solo in the bag. Puck doesn't recognise the other songs they do, but the looks from Blaine, 'Cedes, Kurt and Rachel tell him that they're both show tunes and they are done pretty well. Vocal Adrenaline's usual insane standards mostly. But they know that they've got something different, even with Finn's little speech that he makes in the back room, which Puck doesn't listen to because he's still trying to get Rachel to just meet his eye, they know that they just need to enjoy themselves and do what they've been practising all week.

So they go on stage with nothing resolved, although Rachel meets his eye once in a cross over during 'Put a Spell on You' and she at least gives him a tiny smile that he manages to return. They were right about the song though, because they keep the whole thing understated and Santana's voice just oozes sex, with the dark lighting and the fog (seriously, they have fog) everything just gets the chilled sort of feel. They get everyone moving with 'Extraordinary', Tina, Kurt and Quinn rocking on their leads, Britt and Mike getting a burst of applause mid-way through for their dancing and Puck and Rachel brush past each other twice and it feels a little easier; the smile on her face, the atmosphere, like she's maybe moving past whatever and might actually talk to him after the competition.

When they shifted on to Mercedes and Rachel's duet, it was pretty clear that most of the club was thrumming with excitement. Possible none more than Rach and Mercedes themselves. They'd been putting so much into the song that it was surprising sometimes that either of them still had their voices left, but it was just as powerful as the first time they'd sang it and every move that each of them made just felt seamless. They couldn't even look at this and think 'we screwed that up' because they didn't. When the last note is dropped there's the roar of applause that gets all of them grinning before they head to the back room to wait the fifteen minutes before they were back on stage for the announcement.

Rachel looks over at him, just as he's high fived Artie and Mike and it almost looks like she's intending on moving over to him before Finn grabs her for a hug and Puck ends up attacked from both sides by Santana and Brittany who are grinning from ear to ear. And yeah, they can get to talk afterwards, because everyone's burning off the rush from the performance right then.

But Puck's pretty sure that if he doesn't talk to her tonight, Sarah might kill him when he gets home.

#

Those seconds it takes to announce the winners never get easier, it's always a heart stopping, gut clenching ache just waiting for them to spill it out the winner's names. Of course for those scant few seconds it's like every scenario runs through their heads and not one of them move for three seconds after New Directions are announced as first place winners and then they just lose it.

They hop around on stage for near five minutes, confetti everywhere, screaming and cheering going on and Kurt even starts bawling on Blaine's shoulder, before they finally clear the stage back to the dressing rooms and Britt hits out with, "If you guys don't come to my house to celebrate, I'll hate you all forever." Which means they're all going to Britt's place to celebrate.

A celebration in Britt's means snacks and drinks and music and laughing around on the living room floor while her parents are off somewhere for the weekend or something. No one's really drinking, they're still too drugged up on adrenaline, a nice natural high and the continuing merriment meaning it's fairly easy going. But Puck still can't seem to manage to snag a minute with Rachel.

It's not even like anyone is doing it on purpose though; Tina interrupted his first chance by demanding the Rachel play in her team against Britt and San on the dance mat, then Sam muscled in just after that trying to get Rachel to agree with him in an argument with 'Cedes, now, when everyone is sitting in the living room, San and Britt engrossed in each other, Kurt and Blaine talking quietly against the sofa, no one to swoop in and interrupt, Puck just can't seem to get Rachel away from Finn for two lousy seconds.

"We did it," Quinn beams at him, giving him a quick hug from the side as he automatically wraps an arm around her shoulders. "We beat Vocal Adrenaline at Regionals, like we didn't two years ago." It's probably poignant that around this time two years ago, they'd just lost to Vocal Adrenaline and they were giving up their daughter. Puck just nods his head, because crap, they've come a long way.

"Yeah, definitely a big deal." But he's not really all that bothered about it. He's sure he will be later, if he ever gets the chance to talk to Rachel, but right then, it's just not something he's processed. Beth is two in three days, three days from now would mark the anniversary of them giving her away. Puck just wanted to get at least a word in with Rachel.

"Hey," Quinn gives his hand a light squeeze, grabbing his attention, "I'll distract Finn, you take her out to poolside, okay?" The small smile is encouraging, probably a comfort too, reassurance in Quinn's wordless way, and Puck just nods, watching her walk away and act like she hadn't just been standing there talking to him. Rachel's about to slip back into the living room when Puck just grabs her hand and tugs her out Britt's back door to the patio. He counts the fact that Rachel didn't fight it or need talking into it as a good starting point.

Brittany's back yard was massive; the pool covered most of the space, lit up by the little lights around the edge of the pool and on the patio around it, little palm trees made a circuit around the yard with deck chairs out for lounging and a little patio furniture set at the far end with the barbecue down there. Puck sort of led Rachel over to the patio seats, her hand just clasped gently in his and he wasn't really sure but he thought he felt her squeeze it once, sort of like she used to do when he was still healing up from the car accident.

He still wasn't exactly sure how to say this, he'd tried working out what to say, tried preparing something, anything, but with Rachel, that rarely worked in his favour at all. But sitting there, in the dark with just a little light from the house and the pool, Puck seriously had no idea what he even wanted to say.

"So, we've kind of been avoiding each other." He noticed the mild blush on her cheeks, not as high as it could get, but it was still there, "And I'm pretty sure that's mostly my fault." Taking a breath, Puck turned himself half towards Rachel, their knees bumping but not pulling back. "I should've said something before I left last week, the fact was I really didn't know what to say. You know I suck at this feelings business and I'm pretty bad at just talking about anything at all for that matter, but I didn't _mean_ to kiss you on Friday," Rachel nods her head, dropped her eyes to the ground between them and Puck smirks before he finishes, "and I wasn't sure how to tell you that it was an accident and didn't mean anything, not when I kinda wanted it to mean something." Her head pops right back up, eyes a little wide but not as wide as when he'd kissed her last week, her mouth just a little bit open in shock. "I figured it would ruin things, you'd start acting weird around me. 'Cause usually, you figure this stuff out pretty quickly about me, you know? And I can't really lie to you 'cause you've got some freaky built in bullshit detector or something. So I didn't say anything and just left."

"I was a little hurt, the way you left." Her voice is soft, like she's worried more than that will ruin the moment or something. Rachel's a big fan of 'moments' in her life.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that," it had taken him a little while after Sarah dropped the little bombshell on him to figure out that Rachel might've been doing the exact same thing he'd done; avoidance to cut out the hurt. "I really didn't think I stood a chance, you know. We're friends, and you've always been so in love with Finn, even when you're not with him, you still sort of gravitate towards him, like you just orbit each other." Rachel and Finn had never made sense to him, not in the long term. They were a high school fling, they were first love or something. But the more they stayed together the more they seemed to believe they were meant to be and Puck had come to accept that Rachel would always be Finn's at that rate. "So I was trying to not ruin what we have with what I want."

"Noah," Rachel shifted, moving closer and one of her legs straightened out to lie under his, her hand reached up to his cheek and he really didn't know if this was where she said she felt the same or if she told him she was just having a moment of weakness or something. "You could never ruin what we have, what we have is far too special."

"I—" he had to lay his cards out, and if it took them until Nationals so get the awkwardness out of the friendship, then so be it. But he was hoping that Sarah hadn't been wrong and the Quinn wouldn't let him make this big an ass of himself, "I'm kind of completely in love with you, so I wouldn't mind changing what we have a little. You know, just things like going out on dates instead of just hanging out, maybe some more kissing without the accident element, calling you my girl." He shrugged a shoulder, grabbing her hand from his cheek to just hold in his, watching her face for reactions.

If Rachel was surprised, she wasn't showing it, the soft smile on her face as she looked at their joined hands sort of made the clenching in his gut ease up. He didn't think he'd ever really put himself on the line like this for a girl. He'd been a bit of a tool trying to figure out things with Lauren; he'd never really had to chase a girl before, never really fought to have the relationship, it was new and it was work and it frustrated him sometimes and made him laugh others. But he'd never really laid himself out for Lauren, he'd just jumped through her hoops.

"That— that seems like a good change." She's shy when she looks up; that watery eye, batting eyelash, biting lower lip shy thing she manages to pull off all the time. He doesn't really think it matters since he's sure she's agreeing with him. "I love you, I'm pretty sure I'm in love with you, and when you kissed me, I wanted you to mean it."

"That one I didn't mean, I mean this one though." Leaning forward, his lips catch hers just as she lets out a little laugh. He's smiling against her lips though and this time, Rachel kisses him back.

#

It's sometime near dawn before he actually gets home, dragging himself into the house and almost passing out on the couch in the living room. He's beyond tired but can't really care about it at all. Having spent almost the whole night out on Britt's patio with Rachel, actually getting somewhere through the mix ups and the miscommunications, he's pretty sure that there isn't anything that'd really bring him down around then.

Pansy or not, he'd actually got the girl this time.

Making it to his own room just seems like a gruelling task and he's definitely not up for that right then. So he just makes it to the sofa and sprawls out. He knows that in a few hours Richard will be up and Fang will be head-butting his face to get him up and Sarah will be jumping on his chest or something just as annoying and sisterly. But he just can't care right then.

So he naps for a few hours, mostly comfortable on the sofa until Richard pokes his forehead somewhere around eight in the morning and Puck just grunts. "Dogs are coming down." Which means a face licking and head-butting, but it's okay because after he's eaten something and walked the dogs he'll go upstairs to his own bed and get a few more hours sleep. "Out late?"

"Yeah, celebration at Britt's." He turns onto his side, not ready to actually get up but mostly conscious.

"So you won? That's great! Where is Nationals this year?" His dad just appears rather suddenly, but it's not unusual for him to get up at the same time as Richard on Saturday's. Puck's pretty sure that Richard and Dad were going to make a point on getting the time off for Nationals. They couldn't manage it yesterday for Regionals and Sarah was getting some sort of mid-term test thing to determine what level she went into next year, but it wasn't like Puck minded, because Sectionals that year had been the first time he'd had parents at the competition.

"Dallas," they hadn't gotten a location of the venue yet, but Schue had said they'd be doing some fundraising soon to help get them their airfare and hotel costs. "It's set to be around the second week in May." Fang pads over, getting dog breath all up in Puck's face and he has to roll away because the big lug has seriously bad breath, but Fang just thinks it's a game and pounces up to climb over Puck.

"So, celebration night? That the reason why you crawled in around five and just passed out on the couch, fully dressed?"

"The stairs are my enemy." He knows they're half asking if he was drinking, he didn't drive home anyway, even though he wasn't drinking, but he shared a cab with Kurt and Rach, dropping him off before Kurt went back to Rachel's house to stay. "Didn't drink, was perfectly safe, got a cab home." But they still like to check that he's being responsible. "Just a really long night." Fang finally settled, lying over Puck's chest while his butt pushed Puck's legs off the sofa and Puck had always thought that it was cats that did this shit just to piss their owners off, but apparently dogs like getting all the space too.

"Well that's great, you gonna be okay for walking these pair?"

"I'm coming too!" Sarah comes thumping down the stairs, Mitzy hot on her heels and Puck's a little surprised that Sarah's fully dressed already. Usually he needs to threaten to leave without her before she gets her butt downstairs and ready to go. "You said I could come with you today."

"Yeah, I'll be fine, Sarah's got Mitz today." Somehow, Fang ended up switching affections towards him, and Mitzy became Sarah's best friend, although there were times when Sarah would call dibs on both of them and when Sarah was playing with Fang and Mitzy there was just no getting in there. Not like Puck cared really, it was like having two really dorky siblings that just happened to have fur, tails and four legs. "C'mon," giving Fang a nudge he gets the pair of them into the kitchen and Sarah dishes out their breakfast while Richard plates up for all of them.

"So didja win?" Puck just nods at Sarah's question, "And did you bring me anything?"

"We were in Carmel, what would I get you in a high school in Carmel?" It wasn't like when they were out of town for Sectionals, but Sarah had apparently still expected some kind of gift. "I'll take you to Carmel next weekend and you can find something okay?"

"Why can't we just go today? You can drive us and we'll find somewhere to play with the dogs and I'll get something cool." With Richard working, Puck usually tries to give their dad the space to get the last bits of his work done so that Sunday isn't another work day since it's the only day off Richard and Dad share. Him and Sarah either do something, or Sarah has some club or whatever and Puck gets out of the way or they just find something to do out of the way before they go to Temple before dinner and Rachel comes over afterwards. But this Saturday is just a little different.

"Because, I'm going out later."

"Where are you going?" He's very well aware of that tone, that's the tone that Sarah uses when she's breaking out her 'I told you so' voice. Ma had the same one, it's eerie hearing it from Sarah, but it's just something she's managed to perfect. Dad and Richard are watching him too, even as he pushes his cereal around in his bowl.

"I'm going out with Rachel." She's still watching him, this stupid half smirk on her face, "Y'know for dinner." And Richard has that same smile now too, like they already know and they probably do. "As a date." Sarah laughs, punching his shoulder much harder than she used to but still not enough to hurt, just enough to get a frown out of him.

"You asked her out then? What happened to 'just friends'?" He knows his dad is just teasing, but he could really do without it because now that he's brought it up he is actually pretty nervous. He's gone out with Rachel loads of times; to the movies, out to restaurants she wanted to try, teaching her how to bowl, just hanging out at the mall. But none of them were actually pre-planned dates, they'd just been hanging out and more often than not Kurt and Blaine came along too. And yeah, they'd probably still do that, but as two couples rather than just four friends, but he was still a little nervous about this whole 'first date' thing. Even if he already knew she liked the restaurant, and that she'd be okay with the froyo afterwards, it was still a little nerve racking.

"Yeah, okay, we're a bit more than friends, and yes I asked her out but can we please not do the third degree at least until after we've gone out?" He doubted they'd really give him a hard time, but until he got through this date he'd really rather not have the teasing making him feel even more apprehensive.

"Okay, no teasing." Sarah offers her pinkie for a promise and Puck links his up with hers to shake in agreement and Dad and Richard just nod at him. It means that the day progresses mostly normal, except that after Temple, Dad and Sarah go home –and Sarah is not covert about her thumbs up, and he takes Rachel to one of her favourite restaurants for dinner.

They don't need to worry about that annoying presence of their friends, because most of their friends don't bother trying out places that have vegan options on the menu, or ones which a more heavily vegetarian or vegan orientated. Puck's found that he doesn't mind vegan stuff that much. He doesn't eat any meat while he's out with her, she says she wouldn't mind, but he's okay with just taking one of the pasta dishes. It's a little awkward for all of five minutes before Rachel just laughs at herself a little.

"You know, Quinn told me I was overreacting about the kiss, that I needed to talk to you. The whole week, even when she was helping me avoid you, she was telling me that I should just talk to you." Puck smirks, because it's just like Quinn to manage to play for both sides there and not to pit them against each other or something.

"Yeah, Q's kind of known for a while." Sipping at her water, Rachel raised her brows at him, "Um, just before the end of winter break I think? She called me on how I felt." In typical Fabray fashion and simply as blunt as ever. "But you were still with Finn back then." Rachel just nodded, letting a small smile pull at her face.

"I'm glad she knew, so that she could tell me I was being stupid." Puck's kind of glad too, since it worked out for them. The rest of the meal goes completely fine; they talk as usual, there are jokes and it all eases out into what they're used to, comfortable but with a bit more intimacy and that's completely fine with Puck. They walk down the block afterwards to get their frozen yoghurt and then walk back to the car slowly. When it starts to get a little cool, Rachel seems perfectly happy to slot herself under his arm, like it's totally natural and they've been doing this for months. It's around then that he realises that nothing's really changed; they're still the friends they were, he's just allowed to kiss her now, there's a little more meaning behind it when he wraps an arm around her, they don't have to tell people that they're just friends when they assume their dating. He figures out that he was completely stupid to be in the least bit nervous about this at all.

"So, will you be picking me up on Monday?" They're standing outside her house, him leaning against the Camry while he sort of spots her dads by the window inside. He knows that she told them they were going out, she tells her dads everything because they're super involved and it used to be weird, except now he gets it because Richard and his dad are like that too.

"Yeah, and I'll be bringing you home, and likely every day from now until graduation, if you want." Usually he'll pick her up most days, but sometimes Kurt or Blaine arrange to do something different. But Puck was fine with picking her up every morning and being her ride back home.

"That sounds perfectly acceptable to me." She grins as she leans into him, her hands on his hips as her chest presses against his and she tilts her head up for a kiss. It's pretty fantastic that he doesn't need to stop himself from doing this, he can just wrap her arms around her and hold her there, slipping his tongue past her parted lips to tease her. She still bites on his lower lip and it still causes a low groan in his chest and she's definitely going to be the death of him.

When Rachel starts to pull away, Puck leans in for another quick kiss before she laughs at him and heads into the house, Puck waiting until she turned to wave at the door before he got into the car to leave. Considering how much he stressed over the whole thing, not to mention the length of time it took him to get with the program when it came to Rachel, it's a little anti-climactic in the best possible way. He'll take no drama over complicated mess any day.

Of course Sarah is waiting for him when he gets home, grinning from ear to ear and he just throws her one of the chocolate bars he picked up for her before heading upstairs after calling his goodnights to Dad and Richard. He actually is pretty tired, considering he barely had any sleep the night before. He doesn't even get to shut the door over before Sarah is pushing her way in.

"Nu-huh, you gotta tell me what happened."

"Seriously? You think I'm going to talk to _you_ about my date? You're not going to know about dates, any kind of dates, until you're twenty. Maybe twenty-five." Sarah just rolls her eyes, making herself at home on his bed and opening up her chocolate.

"Where'd you take her?"

"We went to Rizzo's, okay? You wanna know what we ordered?" Puck just kicked off his shoes, ignoring Mitzy when she nudged the door open and came in to slide under Puck's bed, he was used to one or the other coming in to sleep.

"No, I wanna know if you screwed it up. You better not have."

"I didn't screw anything up, okay. We're gonna be fine." And he was pretty sure that they would be, so long as Finn wasn't an issue, and he was getting the feeling that Finn wouldn't be.

"Didja kiss her?" Sarah sings it, leaning against his headboard and grinning like a dork and Puck feels the blush that only a little sister and her stupid teasing can really cause. "You did! And on a first date, for shame." He can't stop himself laughing at her, but she's seriously not getting to stay up and watch stupid movies anymore, because that is just weird.

"Okay brat, shut up and shift over." He plops down on his bed beside her, apparently that irritates Mitzy who slithers out from under the bed to climb up and lie down by their feet. "You're okay with me and Rach dating though, right?" She hands him over a little piece of chocolate, even as he grabs the remote to flick on the television and find something on to watch for a while before he kicks her out to go to bed.

"Yeah, it was my wish for Mom's birthday, remember?" And yes, he did remember that, but he'd told her at the time to knock it off. He should've known she gave up too easily. "I like Rachel, she's nice to me. And Mama really wanted you to be with her, 'cause you were happy when you were with Rachel."

"Okay, stop being smart, it's annoying." She just smirks and leans on his shoulder, watching the start of yet another repeat episode of Family Guy.

"Just don't screw it up, Noah. I really like her." Which was just a little obvious.

#

Since Richard feels like they need a little time away or something, Puck's pretty sure the guy just wants to get the hell out of Lima for a day, so they spend Sunday roaming around Columbus and being pretend tourists. He spends most of the day texting Rachel and completely ignoring the comments from his dad about being whipped after just one date.

Monday morning didn't bring any nerves, even as he pulled up at Rachel's house, fully prepared to go inside and do the introduction thing like Rachel had talked about on Saturday night, even though her dads knew him perfectly well, only to find Hiram and Leroy almost shoving Rachel out the house to the car. They were waving from the front door with grins on their faces as Rachel climbed into the car, huffing slightly before smiling at him and leaning over for a kiss.

"What was that about?" He asked with a frown, noticing that her parents were going back into the house and not to their cars to go to work.

"Apparently my dads had an 'over/under' bet on as to when we'd get together." He's not exactly surprised, apparently everyone but him knew that it Rachel didn't just think of him as a friend and that's just a touch embarrassing but you'd think one of them could've actually told him in small, concise and to the point words to help him along or something.

"And that meant kicking you out of the house?"

"I don't want to talk about what it meant." She has her 'firm and determined' face on so he just laughs, drives them to the Lima Bean for coffee before class and then they head in to meet Kurt and Blaine. Kurt's probably the first to notice his arm over her shoulder and her grin, the way he elbows Blaine in the side lightly.

"Oh my Liza, can it be?"

"So, what did you guys get up to this weekend?" Rachel blushes a little but doesn't pull away from him and Puck just doesn't care because he's fairly certain they were hoping for this anyway.

"Oh, behave you two, you know exactly what happened." Kurt just muscles in on Rachel's other side, hugging her quickly with a grin.

"It's about time you know, Finn is my brother and I love him dearly, but sweetie did you ever really doubt _this_ one?" Kurt nods his head at Puck, and Puck just rolls his eyes.

"I really hate when he talks about me like I'm not there." Puck made a point of talking to Blaine and not Kurt, just as they always did when Rachel and Kurt had their own little conversations about Puck or Blaine like they weren't there.

"It seems to be more and more common. You think we should worry?"

"Okay, enough, let's just go to class and stop teasing each other." There are a few whispers through the halls, and Puck's sure that he hears JBI's stupid camera, but they mostly just ignore it, or remain oblivious. For all that glee club is seen as a pack of losers, everyone seems to want to know who's dating who and what's going on behind the choir room doors. It's frustrating sometimes, but it's gotten to the point where it hardly matters.

Santana doesn't say anything to him during Chem, although she does bump his shoulder with her fist and give him a smirk from her station since their partners are both back this week. Quinn sneaks up to give him a hug before third period and Finn just frowns at him during lunch. He figures glee might actually be a little bit interesting at this rate.

"First of all, congratulations guys," Schue comes in, trophy in hand, grinning from ear to ear like they already sort of knew he would. "We have come so far, everyone. This is proof that feeling and hard work can get us anywhere. There's nothing we can't do now, and this year, Nationals is ours." Puck covers a laugh with a cough when he hears Kurt muttering about preparation over stupid weekly assignments beside him and Rachel gives him a strange look that he just waves off. "Now, Nationals is in Dallas, and we're going to be ready for it." Hopefully that means much more preparation.

Schue starts talking about possible set lists and how he wants to showcase everyone, to give them all an opportunity to shine, even though they all know he's probably going to revert and try to do the same stuff as before. It'll be harder with Mercedes being so strong willed to have her time now, and with Kurt and Blaine being far stronger and capable singers than Finn and Santana getting that taste of solo-spotlight, it's not going to be something she'll be wanting to give up.

"You ready for a bloodbath, babe?" He gives Rachel's shoulder a small nudge, knowing that even though she's a brilliant singer and definitely their driving force, she's going to have a bit of a battle on her hands getting Nationals to be an even keel show.

"Are you going to support me through it?" Rachel just grins at him, probably figuring this out just the same as he has; it's cool that she's not freaking out, that she's kind of looking mellow about it, because if they can bring everyone's talent to the front, then Vocal Adrenaline will have been nothing but a blimp. Nationals with all of them working together for once, rather than fighting for a top spot, it'll be something completely different.

"What else would I be doing? I'll shake some fuckin' pom-poms for you." Her head rests on his shoulder, his arm around the back of her chair to cradle her there and she just smiles.

"You know, I've never been to Nationals with a boyfriend before. I seem to leave with one, but go in single."

"You want me to dump you right before Nationals so we can hook up again afterwards? Or will we just break that tradition along with the losing it one?"

"Now you're talking." Even if they don't win (which he's sure is utter crap, because they're totally gonna win this one, none of that writing their stuff the night before and half assing it on stage) He's not letting her get away and he's not giving up on this without a fight. Not after what they've had to put up with to get there.

"You wanna come over for dinner? 'Cause I'm pretty sure Sarah wants to gloat while you're actually around to hear about how big a dumbass I am." And he loves his little sister dearly, but sometimes she's scary like their nana was scary, and that's a lot of scary in a tiny nine-year-old package.

"Sure, it's not like I really need to worry about your family not liking me."

"Rach, baby, you need to worry about them marrying us in our sleep."

"Maybe after I graduate from Julliard or NYU or NYADA and you've found your calling. But you still have to propose." And normally, he'd be breaking into a cold sweat right there and choking up, not because he's scared of commitment or anything, but the prospect of being with a girl who can see that far ahead and already has it sort of planned? That's worrying shit right there.

But with Rachel, he just smirks and places a kiss on her cheek, kind of stoked that she's actually thinking that far ahead, and that she still thinks they'll be together, and that she's hoping for that. It just means that he gets his cake, and he can eat it too.


End file.
